Maldives helps India block bid to hold Saarc summit in Pakistan

NEW DELHI: After it stood up for India at the OIC earlier this year, the Maldives again came to India’s rescue at the Saarc foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday by helping India block the proposal to hold the 19th Saarc summit in Pakistan. Islamabad is the host for the summit which was to take place in 2016 but has remained suspended after India’s call to boycott the event because of the Uri terror attack carried out by terrorists from across the border the same year.

In his Saarc address, Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid called for creation of a conducive environment to reach consensus on convening the 19th Saarc summit. “At this point, we are preoccupied with dealing with Covid-19 pandemic and do not think it is the appropriate time to discuss the time of summit,” he said. The current Saarc chair Nepal had put the stalled summit process on meeting agenda, calling for member states to explore options to hold the summit. The proposal had to be dropped.

This was not the first time that the Maldives had rendered crucial assistance to India on a multilateral forum. At an OIC meeting in May, the Maldives refused to support any action by the organisation which singled out India for “Islamophobia”. Even as the OIC looked to step up attacks on India, the Maldives said singling out India for Islamophobia would not just be factually incorrect but also detrimental to religious harmony in South Asia.


In his Saarc address on Thursday, Shahid said the financial package of $250 million pledged by India for Maldives was the largest financial support announced by a bilateral partner during Covid-19. He said with the $1.4 billion received in 2018, and the cash grants for community projects, India was by far the single largest donor to Maldives.