With focus on development projects, India-Maldives to sign MOUs, discuss COVID-19 crisis

A number of MoUs in the field of sports and on implementation of some high impact community development projects will be signed later on Monday between Maldives and India in its national capital Malé. The signing comes during the visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla to the country.

Earlier today, Maldivian Foreign Secretary Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed and his Indian counterpart held official discussions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with particular emphasis "on the recovery and resilience efforts to curb the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, including boosting tourism", Maldives foreign ministry readout said.

Amidst the COVID pandemic, India had sent relief to the Maldives in terms of food, medicine.

The focus was also on "accelerating" the implementation of the ongoing development cooperation projects across the Maldives.

During the visit, FS will also hand over $100 million for the  Maldives--the Greater Malé Connectivity Project (GMCP). India is overall providing funding of $500 million for the project, of which $100 million is a grant and $400 million is a Line of Credit (LOC). The biggest project of the country will connect capital Malé with Villingili, Thilafushi and Gulhifalhu via bridges and causeways of a total length of 6.695 kilometres.

During the visit, Foreign Secretary will also call-on President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and have talks with ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Finance, Economic Development, Planning, Home Affairs, Tourism and Youth & Sports. FS will also call-on Speaker Mohamed Nasheed and meet with other political leaders.

Ahead of the visit, the ministry of external affairs in a release said, "Maldives occupies a special place in India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. This time-tested and enduring relationship with the Maldives strengthened and deepened even further in recent months."

Indian FS has been to Bangladesh, Myanmar, France, Germany and UK as part of India's diplomatic outreach amidst the COVID pandemic.