NEW DELHI: Ahead of the visit of External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, India said that any solution related to the imprisonment of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed had to “be seen as fair and just”.
Sushma Swaraj will be visiting Maldives on Oct 10 for the re-activated Joint Commission meeting which had last met 15 years ago. This is a turn-around from March, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dropped Maldives from his Indian Ocean sojourn.
On a query on India’s position on the imprisonment of former President Nasheed, MEA spokesperson said, “As the World's largest democracy, we have always supported political pluralism and democracy in the Maldives”.
“We expect this issue to be handled in accordance with laws and rules of Maldives and we hope that the outcome will be seen by everybody as free and just. I think that is the most important thing - that the outcome has to be seen to be free and fair,” he added.
Swarup noted that Prosecutor General has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court of Maldives in the case of former President Nasheed. “As a close and long standing friend of Maldives we hope that a solution is found and we are committed to peace, stability and progress in Maldives,” he said.
Incidentally, Swarup said that there were no plans so far of an meeting of the Indian minister with Maldivian opposition parties.
Asked about the recent blast in a boat carrying the Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen, Swarup said that India had been “very concerned when we heard about it”.
“We were very concerned when we heard about it. We immediately offered treatment facility in India and as per request of Maldives, we sent a three-member forensic team to conduct audit of the boat to determine the cause of the explosion,” he said.
The Joint Commission talks will cover areas of trade and investment, developmental objectives in
Maldives, health care, energy collaboration, human resources development, defence and security ties.