‘Won’t repeat’: Maldives foreign minister on derogatory remarks against PM Narendra Modi

Maldives foreign minister Moosa Zameer said on Thursday that he held discussions with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar regarding the possibility of President Mohamed Muizzu’s visit to New Delhi “very soon”. This comes as the two nations held diplomatic talks in an effort to mend strained ties.

On derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the minister said the government was making sure such incidents were not repeated.

Zameer further defended President Muizzu’s decision to visit China after his win in the elections and not India. He said that previously, discussions were held with New Delhi over the visit to India but was pushed back considering the ‘convenience’ of both sides.

“The president visited Turkey as well as China. I think that mainly for convenience because obviously, we did discuss with Delhi about a visit. But for the convenience of both sides, we thought it might be okay for us to delay it a little bit,” he said.

Further, he said that during his discussions with India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, they talked about organising Muizzu’s visit to New Delhi very soon.

“So, in fact, even today, with my discussions with the External Affairs Minister, we are discussing the President’s visit to Delhi very soon. Hopefully,” he said. He also made it amply clear that there is no military pact with China.

Zameer clarified, “I don’t think there is any military pact with China. One thing the President of Maldives has clearly said is that we are not bringing in any foreign militaries in the Maldives, no, we are not.”

Further, Jaishankar and Zameer discussed debt relief measures for Maldives during their talks. The foreign minister said that the economic cooperation with India has been an “integral part of the Maldivian economy”.

He also distanced his government from the derogatory remarks made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that it was not the stance of the Muizzu government and “proper action” was taken to make sure that it is not repeated.

“I think if you have seen, like you said, we have said that it’s not the stand of the government or it’s not the view of the government. And we believe it shouldn’t have been done. And then we are taking proper action to make sure that this doesn’t repeat,” Zameer said.