India Has Improved Our Naval Facility: Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla

The Maldivian foreign minister Abdulla Shahid recently hinted at the Indian key role in developing his country’s naval facility, according to an official media report.

Abdulla said India’s cooperation will end the maintenance practice of sending Maldives vessels abroad and will improve the archipelago’s security capabilities.

The minister highlighted the work on developing the harbor at Uthuru Thila Falhu, an ongoing project based on a bilateral agreement that aims at creating a hub for vessel maintenance.

He marked it as the work of elements and interests affected by such collaboration.

“Our country is surrounded by a large ocean with a porous border and so we need effective surveillance, maritime operations and a coast guard”, Abdulla stressed pointing at the void of maintenance hub for boats.
 
 He said, we either seek Sri Lanka or India for our boats’ maintenance or repair works.
 
 Training Maldivian personnel would enhance the harbor facility for such works, he added.

Commenting on the India-Maldives collaboration in defence, Shahid said working in an informative, sharing and cooperative manner in security with a similar visioned partner helps to prevent “major catastrophes”.

The biggest challenge to criminal gangs, narco-terrorists, mercenaries, terror groups and non-state actors undermining the sovereignty of small states comes from such cooperation, he said.
 
 Meanwhile, in 2021, India extended a USD50 million line of credit to the Maldives for defence projects and the two countries signed a pact to develop the harbor at Uthuru Thila Falhu.

The south Asian country has also received patrol vessels and maritime surveillance aircraft from India that helps the coast guard to function as the armed maritime component of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) in the absence of a navy.