Tag: india

India donates helicopter to MNDF

The Indian government has donated a helicopter to the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), reports Haveeru.

The helicopter will be officially handed to the MNDF at a ceremony on Wednesday.

Indian Defence Minister AK Anthony visited the Maldives in August, and after his visit the Indian High Commission said the Indian government would provide a helicopter and assistance to establish a 25-bed military hospital in Malé.

The helicopter has been re-painted with a Maldivian flag and a sign reading MNDF.

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Erroneous reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters: Foreign Ministry

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that while recent reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters are unsubstantiated, the government is concerned about pirates operating off the Somali coast west of the Maldives.

Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed said the government is keeping in touch “with the Indians and the Americans to enhance maritime security.”

“For now, Somali pirates are operating as far as the Seychelles, but not in the Maldives.”

Dr Shaheed said the government was taking “pre-emptive and preventive measures” to ensure the safety of the country.

State Minister of Defence Muiz Adnan said although there have not been recent reports of pirates operating in Maldivian waters, “this is a concern for everybody. A lot of pirates operate out of Somali waters.”

Adnan said the coast guard conducts regular sea and air patrols and also regularly schedules joint patrols with the Indian army, although “not only concerning piracy.”

He said if any pirate vessels are seen in Maldivian waters, “we will take the necessary measures to apprehend them.”

President of the Fishermen’s Union Ibrahim Manik said he had heard no reports of fishermen sighting any pirate vessels in Maldivian waters, but said that sometimes they saw foreign vessels illegally doing long-line fishing.

Manik said if fishermen saw any illegal vessels, they would “definitely cooperate with the government. We are fighting against this,” he said, but added that “we are not very concerned. We are stronger than that.”

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Maldivians ready to open up the economy, says president

Maldivians are starting to see the benefits of opening up the economy for private investments, said President Mohamed Nasheed, speaking at the Regional Export Awards presentation ceremony of Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India, held at Kurumba Maldives yesterday evening.

President Nasheed said until recently the Maldivian economy has been very centralised and heavily regulated, and this had “prevented growth, repelled investment and thwarted people’s aspirations.”

The president mentioned the reforms in the Indian economy, which he said were strengthening the country’s economy and lifting millions out of poverty.

Highlighting the importance of foreign investment, he mentioned the benefits of the agreement with Apollo Hospitals of India, which are investing US$125 million to reform Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

He said the government has successfully attracted foreign investors to invest in housing, electricity and energy programmes, and how private investors are at the forefront of the new transport system that will connect all inhabited islands with ferry services.

The Maldives Partnership Forum IV, a conference giving international investors the chance to visit the country and invest in its development, will be held in March.

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Vice president on official visit to India

Vice President Mohamed Waheed is on an official visit to India. He arrived in the neighbouring country on 18 February.

This follows close visits by Indian Chief of Army Staff, General Deepak Kapoor, and MP Rahul Gandhi to the Maldives, and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently signed by the Maldives and India.

On 19 February at a meeting held at the official residence of the Indian Vice President Hamid Mohamed Ansari, Dr Waheed thanked India “for its support in introducing democracy in the Maldives.”

Vice President Ansari assured Vice President Waheed of the continued support from India to the Maldives in the areas of social and economic development.

Dr Waheed then met with President of India Pratibha Patil on 20 February. At a meeting at the official residency, the vice president said providing education and job opportunities for Maldivian youth was “important to prevent them from the scourge of drugs,” and asked that Indian institutions assist in providing more higher education opportunities for Maldivian youth.

The vice president then met with Indian External Affairs Minister Shri S. M. Krishna. Dr Waheed asked for assistance in preventing drugs being trafficked from India into the Maldives and providing rehabilitation treatment for addicts.

Dr Waheed also met with Indian Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Prithviraj Chavan. They spoke of the issue of climate change.

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Maldives to strengthen defence links with India amid rising terror concerns

The Maldives will formalise its counter-terrorism agreements with India after renewed fears that Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is trying to establish a base in remote parts of the Maldives.

The LeT was implicated in the terror attacks in Mumbai on 26 November 2008 in which gunmen entered the city by sea and killed at least 173 people and wounded 308. It is considered a terrorist organisation by India, the United States, the UK and Russia.

Covering the story today, Indian newspaper The Economic Times noted that Sultan Park bomber Moosa Inas was linked to the LeT and had travelled to Kerala before the bombings, a popular recruiting ground for the group.

Indian news portal Rediff.com today quoted Indian intelligence bureau sources as saying that the LeT “has nearly 1,000 operatives active in the Maldives”, and that there was no way the group’s operations “can be curbed unless there is very good intelligence sharing with the Maldives.”

The intelligence sources claimed that in the last three months “there has been an increase in LeT activites in the Maldives, and several persons from [the LeT’s] Kerala group have slipped into the country and are busy setting up operations there.”

India could ill-afford a slip in its Maldives policy, given the “extreme aggression” of the LeT group, the sources told Rediff.

The notion of a thousand LeT operatives active in the Maldives “may be an exaggeration”, said the Maldivian president’s press secretary Mohamed Zuhair, “but there may be some truth in it.”

Minister for Home Affairs Mohamed Shihab is currently in India meeting his counterpart P Chidambaram to draw up a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries that will be signed in April.

First Secretary at the Indian High Commission to the Maldives, Naryan Swamy, said the agreement would formalise existing arrangements with the Maldives but the details would have to wait until Shihab returned.

Zuhair said the MoU was “very important because it gives notice that the Maldives will not allow terrorist operations here.”

“The Maldives is very important to India’s security – the Mumbai bombers attacked via sea,” Zuhair said. “The sea is India’s vulnerable underbelly because there are so many entry points, and the Maldives can be very helpful with that because every day we have 1,500 fishing vessels sometimes 70-100 kilometres out to sea. If they see any suspicious vessels they can coordinate the information through various centres in the Maldives.”

The system appeared to work, Zuhair said, because after the president’s speeches following the Mumbai bombing several poaching vessels were apprehended based on information from fishing boats.

India was already assisting the Maldives to establish a chain of coastal radars stations across the country’s atolls, he said, which will be networked with India’s own radar network.

Zuhair acknowledged that such defence cooperation might “concern” countries like China, but he noted that “of all our neighbours India is the natural country of choice to assist the Maldives.”

Last week Al Jazeera reported that a group seven fighters linked to the Taliban met in the Maldives with Afghan MPs to discuss an ambitious peace plan whereby Taliban soldiers would be paid to put down their arms. Al Jazeera’s report claimed the fighters chose the Maldives as the venue for the talks because it was “the only place they felt safe.”

Zuhair emphasised that the Maldives “will not allow terrorists to operate in the country and put the Maldives’ and our neighbours’ peace and security at risk.

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Maldives to ease trade barriers with India

The government will ease trade barriers with India to promote trade between the two countries and accelerate foreign investment. Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed is currently leading a delegation in India to facilitate trade.

Indian financial newspaper Business Standard claimed Indian companies, including Tata, Suzlon, GMR, Apollo Hospitals and Oberoi, could invest as much as US$1 billion in the Maldives and significantly boost the country’s economy.

The Standard also reported that the Maldives foreign ministry will increase the leasing periods for resort development to 50 years and reduce the base rent in a bid to promote foreign investment in the hospitality sector.

Ahmed Naseem, state minister for foreign affairs said “many items that are traded between countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will have tariffs eased on them, and this will make trade between the countries easier.”

Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives, Dnyaneshwar Mulay, said such a move would benefit the Maldivian economy.

“The lower tariffs will make exports and imports cheaper and make the market more competitive,” he said, adding that such a deal would also encourage the Maldives to increase its own exports.

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Maumoon leaves on ‘official trip’ to India

Former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has today left for New Dheli, India on an ‘official trip’, according to a press release from the former president’s office.

Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) vice president Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, who has put himself forward as a candidate for the DRP leadership after Gayoom’s departure, is accompanying.

During this trip Maumoon will meet Indian Prime Minister Dr Mammauhan Singh and other senior government officials.

Thasmeen also announced the DRP would be offering Maumoon an honorary position at the party’s national congress in February.

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Maldives can learn from India, says Nasheed

President Mohamed Nasheed has claimed the Maldives can learn from India’s economic success and the way the country has brought large segments of its population out of poverty.

Speaking at a dinner last night in honour of India’s Republic Day, the 60th anniversary of its freedom from British rule, Nasheed described India as “the world’s largest and most vibrant democracy, shining a beacon of freedom and hope around the world.”

The country was rising “peacefully” to take its place “as one of the 21st Century’s superpowers,” he said.

The founding of India’s news constitution had many parallels with the Maldives, Nasheed said.

“India took the bold decision to found a republic based on the principles of democracy and freedom. The new constitution enshrined democratic rights and fundamental freedoms, vesting power in the people.”

But he added that it would be “foolish to pretend that India’s transition was all plain sailing,” and suggested that the Maldives could learn from India’s experiences.

“I believe that the Maldives has much to learn from India. Just as India faced growing pains after Independence, so the Maldives has teething problems of its own.

“The new administration has inherited crippling levels of debt, stacked up in the last years of the former regime, our youth have been plagued by rampant drug abuse, and many in our society remain scarred by the torture and cruelty of the past thirty years.

“India overcame its growing pains by embracing its new democracy and respecting fundamental liberties,” he said. “Despite its faults, history shows us that democracy is the best guarantor of freedom, peace and prosperity.”

In particular, Nasheed said, “the Maldives can learn from India’s economic transformation.

“For too long, the Maldives’ economy has been centrally planned, heavily regulated and micro-managed by the government. This has prevented growth, repelled investment and thwarted people’s aspirations. By opening up our economy to the world, the Maldives can also enjoy economic success. ”

Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives Dnyaneshwar Mulay said India was “fortunate” to have a friend in the Maldives, “and I happy this partnership is now going into an economic, clultural and academic phase with the strengthening of health and education services.”

Mulay added that he saw “a huge large number of new things happening between India and Maldvies in next few years.

“We do feel India has a stake in the success and prosperity of the Maldives,” he said.

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President Nasheed returns home after overseas trip

President Nasheed has returned to Male’ after concluding his trip to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and India.

The president’s first stop was at Abu Dabi to attend the World Future Energy Summit.

In his address the President said that the change needed to combat climate change was radical, “although we do not possess all the technologies” to do so.

Nasheed emphasised that countries and companies who led the change through their capacity for innovation would be the winners of the century.

He claimed countries would need to learn to live within planetary boundaries, and further added that by the end of the century, “the entire world needs to go carbon neutral.”

The president also told the summit that the Copenhagen accord would need to be strengthened, and that in its current form would not prevent catastrophic climate change.

“The vast majority of world leaders are determined to strengthen the Copenhagen Accord,” he said.

When that happened, he said, “market failures” would be corrected and carbon pollution would be properly penalised.

“To my mind, the smart money is green,” said Nasheed.

The summit billed itself as the the world’s platform for sustainable future energy solutions, providing “an ideal networking event for industry leaders, investors, scientists, specialists, policymakers and researchers to discuss the challenges of rising energy demand and actions to achieve a cleaner and more sustainable future for the world.”

Bahrain

In Bahrain, the President held meetings with senior government officials as well as with the banking, investment, and finance sectors in Bahrain.

Nasheed met Talal Al Zain, CEO of Bahrain Sovereign Wealth Fund,Dr Esam Abdulla Yousif Fakhro, Chairman of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and, Mr Easam Yousif Janahi, Chairman of First Energy Bank and Gulf Finance House.

The meetings centred on the business and investment opportunities available in the Maldives. Discussions were also held on forging cooperation between Maldives fishing industry and Bahrain fishing companies.

India

In Chennai, India, Nasheed attended the Partnership Summit 2010 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Nasheed addressed the summit and said “the government was looking for investors for public sector investment programmes, particularly in utilities and other infrastructure projects.”

President Nasheed also visited a wind turbine manufacturing facility in Vengal near Chennai, India.

“The evolution of wind turbine technology means it is now easy to generate electricity even at low wind speeds,” he said.

“This opens up significant opportunities to set up wind parks in newer locations,” he added.

The president was also present at the signing ceremony when the Government of Maldives signed an agreement with Apollo Hospitals to manage Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) in Male’.

“We have immense faith in Apollo Hospitals and the pioneering spirit of the group,” he said.

“Under the able leadership of the visionary Dr Reddy, we are certain that IGMH and the Maldives will emerge as a global healthcare destination,” the president said.

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