Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu will make a State Visit to India from 6-10 October following a formal invitation extended by President of India Droupadi Murmu, his office announced on Friday. This is Muizzu's first bilateral visit and he would hold top-level meetings with President Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other high-ranking officials of the Indian government.
"President Dr Muizzu continues to remain committed to strengthening bilateral relations with countries that play an important role in the development and growth of the Maldives, an active and pro-active foreign policy agenda for the country… Bilateral cooperation issues will be discussed toward further strengthening this long-standing relationship between the two countries," a statement released on Friday by Muizzu's office said.
The Maldives President had, earlier this year, visited New Delhi on June 9, 2024, where he had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Modi and the Council of Ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He had also called on PM Modi on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai on December 1, 2023. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Maldives President is also visiting Mumbai and Bengaluru, where there would be business-to-business engagements.
"The visit underscores the significance that India attaches to its ties with Maldives. It is likely to give additional impetus to cooperation and strong people-to-people contacts between the two countries," said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal at a weekly media briefing in New Delhi on Friday afternoon. In August, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar had visited Maldives on an official three-day visit, his first since assuming office for a second term in June.
He was earlier reported to have visited the strategically important Indian Ocean archipelago in January 2023. For India, Maldives occupies an important place in New Delhi's vision of 'Neighbourhood First' and 'SAGAR'. Even though the relationship between the two countries had become strained last year, India has remained one of the major providers of development assistance to the island nation with several projects funded by India benefitting the lives of thousands of people in the country.
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