Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced financial assistance of USD 1.4 billion in the form of budgetary support, currency swap and concessional lines of credit to fulfill socio-economic development programmes in the Maldives.
Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid told Strategic News International that the Solih government has many election pledges to fulfill and these need money to implement. To garner financial resources he would go to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and China also. Asked if he would be looking for grants rather than loans, the Minister replied in the affirmative.
Maldives’ new Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer said on Monday that China is executing infrastructure projects at vastly higher prices than originally proposed but the island nation cannot get out of its commitments now.
Hours after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih took the oath of office the President’s Office published a 15-page document outlining his agenda for the first 100 days. There are 161 pledges covering 23 sectors with targets set for the first day, the first week, the first month, and the first 60 and 90 days.
The Maldivian opposition party, Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) led by former President Abdulla Yameen,has charged that the Ibrahim Solih government has entered a “secret” deal with India to increase the Indian military presence in the archipelago and also to give the I-havan Special Economic Zone project to India, reports www.avas.mv
The Maldivian Supreme Court has ruled that the judge’s detention was carried out by the Maldives National Defense Force for security purposes, under powers vested in them under the Armed Forces Act. The bench stated there was no evidence to suggest that the judge’s arrest was carried out, outside the ambit of the law. The Supreme Court said that the judge’s detention did not amount to terrorism.
The newly elected Ibrahim Mohamed Solih government in the Maldives is likely to tread cautiously in foreign affairs particularly vis-à-vis India and China, given the ground realities in terms of the developmental needs of an emerging nation wanting to diversify its economic profile, and the compulsions arising from its strategic location in the Indian Ocean.
Maldives, Nov 23 – China’s Ambassador to Maldives, Zhang Lizhong has dismissed claims that the Maldives owed the Chinese government a debt of US 3 billion dollars stating the figures were ‘deeply exaggerated’, local media reported Friday. In an interview with the local ‘Avas’ media, Lizhong said many including the former Maldives President, Mohamed Nasheed […]
Maldives left the Commonwealth in 2016 citing unfair and unjust treatment weeks after the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) – the enforcement mechanism of the Commonwealth – threatened to suspend Maldives from the council if effective steps were not taken to resolve the ongoing political crisis in the archipelago.
“The trade imbalance between China and the Maldives is so huge that nobody would think of an FTA between such parties,” said Mohamed Nasheed, the chief of the Maldivian Democratic Party, which leads the ruling federal alliance. “China is not buying anything from us. It is a one-way treaty.”