NEW DELHI: After defending India at the OIC earlier this year, the Maldives again came to India’s rescue at the Saarc Foreign Ministers meeting on Thursday to help India block the proposal to hold the 19th Saarc summit in Pakistan. Islamabad is hosting the summit that was to take place in 2016, but has remained on hold after India’s call to boycott the event due to the Uri terror attack carried out by terrorists from across the border the same year.
In his Saarc speech, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid called for the creation of an environment conducive to reaching consensus on the convening of the 19th Saarc summit. “At this point, we are concerned about dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and we do not believe that the time is appropriate to discuss the timing of the summit,” he said. The current Saarc president, Nepal, put the stalled summit process on the meeting’s agenda and called on member states to explore options for holding the summit. The proposal had to be abandoned.
It was not the first time that the Maldives had provided crucial assistance to India in a multilateral forum. At an OIC meeting in May, the Maldives refused to support any action by the organization that singled out India as “Islamophobia”. Even as the OIC sought to escalate attacks against India, the Maldives said that flagging India for Islamophobia would not only be factually incorrect, but would also be detrimental to religious harmony in South Asia.
In his Saarc speech on Thursday, Shahid said that the $ 250 million financial package promised by India for the Maldives was the largest financial support announced by a bilateral partner during Covid-19. He said that with the $ 1.4 billion received in 2018 and cash grants for community projects, India was by far the largest donor to the Maldives.
In his Saarc speech, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid called for the creation of an environment conducive to reaching consensus on the convening of the 19th Saarc summit. “At this point, we are concerned about dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and we do not believe that the time is appropriate to discuss the timing of the summit,” he said. The current Saarc president, Nepal, put the stalled summit process on the meeting’s agenda and called on member states to explore options for holding the summit. The proposal had to be abandoned.
It was not the first time that the Maldives had provided crucial assistance to India in a multilateral forum. At an OIC meeting in May, the Maldives refused to support any action by the organization that singled out India as “Islamophobia”. Even as the OIC sought to escalate attacks against India, the Maldives said that flagging India for Islamophobia would not only be factually incorrect, but would also be detrimental to religious harmony in South Asia.
In his Saarc speech on Thursday, Shahid said that the $ 250 million financial package promised by India for the Maldives was the largest financial support announced by a bilateral partner during Covid-19. He said that with the $ 1.4 billion received in 2018 and cash grants for community projects, India was by far the largest donor to the Maldives.
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