by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News
New Delhi : India and the Maldives on Monday agreed to deepen cooperation to maintain peace and security in the Indian Ocean region as New Delhi extended lines of credit worth $1.4 billion to the archipelago nation following delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih here.
The two sides also signed four agreements, including on cultural cooperation, IT and electronics cooperation and on improving the ecosystem for agribusiness.
“President Solih and I agree that to maintain peace and security in the Indian Ocean region, we need to deepen our cooperation,” Modi said while jointly addressing the media with Solih after the talks.
“Both India and the Maldives share equal interest and stake in the development and stability of our region,” he said.
Stating that the security interests of the two countries are related to each other, Modi said that there is also unanimity on the sustainability of this region and to be conscious of each other’s interests and concerns.
“We will not allow the use of our countries to harm each other,” he said.
“I want to work together with President Solih for the bright future of our region, and utilise all possibilities in the relationship between India and Maldives.”
According to a joint statement issued following the talks, both leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation to enhance maritime security in the Indian Ocean region through coordinated patrolling and aerial surveillance, exchange of information and capacity building.
“The two leaders reaffirmed their unwavering commitment and support for increased cooperation in combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations both within the region and elsewhere,” it stated.
“Both sides agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation on issues of common concern, including piracy, terrorism, organised crime, drugs and human trafficking.”
The Prime Minister hailed Maldives’ decision to re-join the Commonwealth and welcomed the country as the newest member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
In his address, Modi also said that India is proud that the Maldives has become a medium income country from being a least developed country.
“The Maldives achieved this despite facing the challenges of sustainable development and climate change,” he said.
“In resolving these challenges, and in the sustainable development of marine resources, the role of Maldives will be important throughout the world.
“Therefore, we agreed to increase mutual cooperation on the various aspects of maritime cooperation between India and the Maldives.”
The Prime Minister said that India will always with be the Solih government in its efforts to carry out ambitious plans for changing the lives of the people of Maldives, and to give a human face to development in the country.
“I am glad that as a direct expression of this commitment, for the socio-economic development of the Maldives, India will extend budget support, currency swap and concessional lines of credit worth $ 1.4 billion,” he said.
Modi also called for boosting connectivity between India and the Maldives saying that better connectivity will lead to exchange of goods and services, information, ideas, culture and people.
He assured Solih of strengthening the two nations’ partnership in health, human resource development, infrastructure, agriculture, capacity building, ICT and tourism.
In this connection, Modi offered additonal 1,000 seats in India for Maldivian nationals for training and capacity building.
The Prime Minister also called for boosting commercial relations and bilateral trade.
“I welcome the growing opportunities for investment by Indian companies in the Maldives,” he said.
According to the joint statement, both leaders agreed to promote closer economic cooperation in sectors such as fisheries development, tourism, transportation, connectivity, health, education, information technology, new and renewable energy and communications.
On his part, Solih said that during the discussions, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to democracy.
“We agreed on the mutual need for regional stability and security in the Indian Ocean,” he said.
According to the statement, Solih reaffirmed his government’s India-First Policy, and commitment to working together closely with India.
“He appreciated the generous assistance provided by the government of India to Maldives, and identified various areas for developmental cooperation, including private sector involvement in development of housing and infrastructure, water and sewerage systems in the outlying islands, healthcare, education and tourism,” it stated.
In his address, Solih said that he has invited both President Ram Nath Kovind and Modi to visit the Maldives next year
Earlier in the day, Solih was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan during which Modi greeted him with a hug.
External Affairs Minister Suhma Swaraj also called on the visiting dignitary and discussed all aspects of the bilateral ties.
Solih arrived here on Sunday on a three-day visit to India, his first foreign visit since assuming office on November 17.
Relations between India and the Maldives deteriorated after Solih’s predecessor Abdulla Yameen imposed an internal emergency in February this year. Yameen was also seen as leaning towards China sidelining India.
Solih defeated Yameen in the elections in September to take over as President.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Rajendra Shende,
“Since I last addressed the COP in 2009, I’ve been deposed in a coup, thrown into jail, and forced into exile. But almost 10 years since I was last at these climate negotiations, I must say, nothing much seems to have changed,” said Mohammad Nasheed, former President of the Maldives, adding: “We are still using the same old, dinosaur language.” He is now back again to for the negotiations at COP24 and started exploring more effective, urgent and enhanced ambitious targets.
Nsheed’s statements, in short, summed up where the climate change negotiations are going at COP24 – with just a day to go to conclude the talk.
Nasheed was just short of repeating what Einstein famously said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Even the usual optimism in such meetings had familiar and archaic language: “Window of opportunity to keep temperature rise below 1.5 C, as revealed by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is closing fast. But we still have time and we can do it”. That was the official tone of the conference.
But unofficial tone was of talk, talk and more talk.
A special report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change did energise the negotiations by adding the edge to the demands of the developing countries for developed countries to move fast on their own commitment for reducing GHG emissions and fulfilling the promise of financial assistance to the developing countries. But Nasheed wondered if the developing countries should now change the narrative of their demands and instead push the developed countries to enhance their own investments in the clean renewable energy so that technology improves and the prices come down. That, as per Nasheed, would benefit the developing countries more than just asking for new and additional finances.
But even there, the developed countries are unwilling to budge. The huge wolf in the herd of the sheep was Poland itself. A day after delivering the inaugural speech at COP24, Polish President Andrzej Duda made a surprise address to coal miners in the country’s south, during their annual festival. He said that as long as he is in office, he “won’t allow for anyone to murder Polish mining”.
Duda contended that under the garb of global warming, one cannot neglect the welfare of the coal miners and ignore their needs. Poland needs coal and it would continue mining it for the sustainable development of its people, was his narrative. That must have been a shock to EU delegation to which coal king Poland belongs. EU has often been very proactive in raising the ambitions for reducing the emissions in line with the IPCC 1.5C report.
One of the Polish students in the conference stated that coal miners in reality can have a better quality life if they start working on the clean energy. Poland is quite skilled in making turbines for windmills and even exports them. But it does not invest in windmills in the country. “In reality, not only coal miners but even average citizen would lead a better life in Poland if we engage ourselves in clean and renewable energy,” he stated. Many houses in the cities and in rural areas still burn dirty coal to heat the houses and pollute the air which, in turn, harms the lives of the present and future generations. But Duda has to please the Solidarity union of the coal miners, who are literally kept in dark about the clean energy.
How can Nasheed’s suggestion on enhanced investment by the developed countries in renewables would materialize in such a political scenario?
In reality, the options before the present negotiations are limited. The fragmentation of the multilateralism is destabilising the negotiations. The oil kings — the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait — have formed another block of countries to complicate the negotiations. Even the facilitative role of United Nations Secretary General, who dashed back into the meeting after the inauguration on December 3, 2018 is unlikely to halt the fragmentation and destabilisation of the negotiations.
The final days of the negotiations have also revealed that the basic tenets of environmental diplomacy are being conveniently (or deliberately) forgotten. As early as the 1992 Rio conference on Environment and Development, the single-most tenet of environmental diplomacy has been the principle of the common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. This basis of negotiations of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements is in jeopardy at COP 24. The rule book to operationalise the Paris Climate Agreement depends much on this tenet.
In words of Nasheed, carbon emissions keep “rising, and rising, and rising. And all we seem to be doing is talking and talking and talking”.
(Rajendra Shende, an IIT alumni, is Chairman, TERRE Policy Centre and a former UNEP Director. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at shende.rajendra@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen
New Delhi : Former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen tried to play India and China against each other, but the new government of Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has a strong “India-first policy” and was not interested in playing such games, the country’s Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said on Tuesday.
He siad even as India was the closest and most-trusted friend of the Maldives, the new government in the island nation was open to engaging with other countries, including China.
“President Yameen, during his five years in office, tried to play China against India, and India against China. He thought he could become a puppet-master. He thought the greatest two countries in Asia could be his puppets. He failed miserably,” Shahid said during a press conference in Delhi.
“Our government will not try to play one country against the other. We have a strong India-first policy, but we will also get engaged with all countries and we will be ready to do business with them,” he said.
“Our message is very clear: India is our closest and most trusted friend and neighbour. We are committed to re-igniting the India-Maldives friendship and relationship, reaching new horizons, exploring new avenues while strengthening existing links,” he said.
Shahid, along with Maldives’ Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer and Economic Development Minister Fayyaz Ismail, was on a two-day visit to India to discuss a range of issues including economic, social and defence cooperation. The new government took reigns of the island country last week.
Shahid said the Maldives was immediately looking for India to help them on the budgetary constraints that they were facing.
“We have received very positive feedback from India… India has given us an assurance they will help us sustain and stabilise the budget. The modalities of the same are being worked out.
“We are also looking at India to lead in engaging with us on projects related to diversification of our economy. We want to vigorously engage with Indian business community on development of Indian economy,” he said.
During the visit, the Maldives recommitted itself to the 1979 visa agreement, with a plan to reviewing it in due course. It also assured India that stalled projects between the two countries would move forward.
“We also reaffirm our commitment to the peace and security of the Indian Ocean and our neighbourhood. We are committed to keeping the Indian Ocean safe and secure, and to working with India to combat terrorism in all its forms,” Shahid said.
On the Maldives looking into deals made with China, Shahid said while many of those deals were made in secrecy and were being reviewed, the island country continued to see China as a friend.
“The Free Trade Agreement (with China) was rushed through parliament… As foreign minister, I have asked my officials to review the document. We will publicly comment on it after the review is complete.”
“China has been generous to us. They have assisted us in a lot of projects, and the country has benefitted over the last 50 years through the generosity of China. It is one of the largest economies in the world and we cannot shy away from that reality. We will continue to engage ourselves with China. China is a friend,” he said.
The minister said the delegation’s visit would be followed by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s visit to India on December 17, “with hope that such high-level exchanges would continue between the two countries”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amit Dasgupta,
Idyllic Maldives faces a serious constitutional crisis and there are no indications that President Abdullah Yameen is willing to soften his position. On the contrary, all indications are that Yameen would ruthlessly incarcerate the opposition and even prevent the forthcoming presidential elections from taking place.
Like his predecessor, he has assiduously cultivated relations with Beijing. The extension of the emergency, especially after New Delhi expressed its misgivings and concerns, demonstrates how confident he is of China’s support. This is India’s backyard and the dilemma New Delhi faces is not simply how it should respond to the challenge, but how the Maldives slipped away from its hug.
For India, this is a seriously worrying development, especially since it has long considered the Maldives as among its few friends in the region.
Even more worrying is the manner in which the Maldives has allowed China to make strategic inroads, much to New Delhi’s discomfiture and disadvantage. The first real evidence was the arbitrary manner in which the airport project was handed over to the Chinese, even though the contract had been won by an Indian company. This was followed by the opening of a Chinese embassy, the signing of an FTA and rumours that Beijing might be given the right to set up a naval base in one of the islands. What is more disturbing is that increased Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean would mean that Beijing would control yet another important shipping lane.
Anticipating that New Delhi might be provoked into intervening militarily, Beijing followed its stern warning with the dispatch of naval ships. A military intervention, while it is a preferred Chinese strategy, however, comes with serious drawbacks. For one, it is not clear as to who would replace President Yameen. Nor indeed is it clear that it would be swift, successful and bloodless. Further, whether there would be international support in case there is a confrontation with the Chinese navy is a matter of surmise.
More importantly, if it fails in achieving its desired objective, it would damage India irrevocably in the eyes of its domestic constituency, the regional audience and the world at large. Added to this is the disturbing manner in which the Maldives, under President Yameen, has emerged as an incubation hub for Islamic fundamentalists with the credible possibility that a military intervention might provoke retaliatory terror attacks in India.
Nevertheless, an urgent and unambiguous response from New Delhi is warranted. It knows that if the Maldives is lost, a domino effect would follow. There is, of course, every danger that whatever action New Delhi adopts would draw the Maldives even closer to China. Furthermore, what has already been lost to the Chinese is least likely to be reversed.
A measured but tough response appears to be the only option that India has. While military intervention is not the preferred option, it is an available one that the Maldives needs to be made aware of. Sustained financial sanctions and a travel ban would cripple the tourism industry and strengthen opposition from rich Maldivians against Yameen. Simultaneously, back channel communications need to be opened with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US and the opposition to isolate Yameen and reduce him to a national liability.
More importantly, India needs to focus more consistently on the neighbourhood to avoid moving from one crisis to another.
(Amit Dasgupta is a former Indian diplomat. The views expressed are personal. The article is in special arrangement with South Asia Monitor)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Stephane Dujarric (Right)
By Arul Louis,
United Nations : The UN will be making contacts with Maldives leaders in response to the request by the opposition leaders for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to oversee the all-party talks proposed by that nation’s President Abdulla Yameen, Guterres’s Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.
“We are very aware of the request,” he told reporters when asked about the opposition’s letter to Guterres. “Contacts will be made in the next few days.”
Taking up the Secretary-General on his offer to have the UN facilitate all-party talks, the Joint Opposition wrote to Guterres asking for the mediation between them and the government of President Abdulla Yameen.
Earlier this month Guterres, who called for restoration of democracy on the Indian Ocian nation, reiterated “his belief in finding a solution to the political stalemate in the Maldives through all-party talks, which the United Nations continues to stand ready to facilitate,” according to Dujarric.
In the letter to Guterres, the Joint Opposition led by former President Mohamed Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party welcomed the government’s offer of a dialogue in principle, but expressed concern that it was a ploy to ease international condemnation over its recent actions, according to the Colombo Gazette.
The opposition asked Guterres to urge the Maldives government to create an acceptable environment for dialogue.
The Gazette reported that according to the opposition, for this to happen the government must fully implement the Supreme Court ruling of February 1, and release Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed, Supreme Court Justice Ali Hameed and other political prisoners and withdraw the military from Parliament allowing it to function fully.
The crackdown began when the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the terrorism conviction of Nasheed as well as the convictions of eight other politicians on several charges.
Yameen clamped down a state of emergency and arrested the judges along with several politicians.
The other three judges left on the Supreme Court overturned their unanimous ruling ordering the release of the nine politicians.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
