India and the Maldives on Monday signed four agreements, including one for a $ 100 million grant for a connectivity project, as visiting Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla and the Maldivian leadership discussed ways to boost economic recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shringla is on a two-day visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago as part of New Delhi’s outreach to key countries in the neighborhood and beyond. Maldives is the sixth country to visit after pandemic-related travel restrictions; the others are Bangladesh, Myanmar, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
One of the four Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two parties was for the $ 100 million grant from India for the $ 500 million Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP) that will link the capital Male with three islands. India will also provide a $ 400 million credit line for the project, the largest infrastructure venture of its kind undertaken in the Maldives.
The other MOUs were for the establishment of soil and plant analysis laboratories through a grant of 1.71 million Maldivian rufiyaas, the establishment of a drug detoxification facility through a grant of 7.7 million Maldivian rufiyaas, and cooperation in sports and youth affairs.
The GMCP, “an inexpensive lifeline connecting Male to Villingili, the new commercial port of Gulhifalhu and the Thilafushi industrial zone,” “will conform to the hallmarks of India’s development cooperation: transparency, full participation and host country ownership and competitive prices, “Shringla said while speaking at the Foreign Ministry in Male.
“We deeply appreciate the government of the president [Ibrahim] Solih for his “India First” foreign policy. This is fully reciprocated by our ‘Neighborhood First’ policy in which the Maldives enjoys a very special and central place, “he said.
The talks between Shringla and his Maldivian counterpart Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed focused on economic recovery. They emphasized “resilience efforts to curb the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, including boosting tourism, accelerating the implementation of ongoing development cooperation projects in the Maldives, and the means to increase connectivity. and bilateral trade, “according to a statement from the Maldives Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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India has come up with a series of measures to boost economic recovery in the Maldives, where the tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. In September, India provided a concessional loan of $ 250 million as budget support. The two parties also launched a freight ferry service to reduce transportation costs.
Shringla began his visit with a meeting with President Solih, considered one of India’s strongest allies in the neighborhood.
The two sides discussed ways to improve regional trade and connectivity, economic cooperation, tourism and overcoming the pandemic. Solih thanked the Indian government for agreeing to implement an air bubble between the two parties and noted that an increasing number of Indian tourists had visited the Maldives since it reopened its borders.
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Solih thanked India for supporting development projects through a line of credit agreements, including the GMCP, the Gulhifalhu port project, water and sewerage projects on 34 islands and a cancer hospital.
Shringla also met with President Mohamed Nasheed and Defense Minister Mariya Didi, assuring them of “continued assistance from India to safeguard our shared interests in the Indian Ocean,” according to a tweet from the Indian high commission.
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