Leaked SOFA agreement is not genuine: Nazim

Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim has said that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) regarding military collaboration between the Maldives and the U.S. that was leaked on social media had been altered, and that it was not the genuine SOFA document.

Nazim and Attorney General Aishath Bisham were summoned to the Parliament Committee on Oversight of the Government tonight, regarding the SOFA agreement.

Both officials refused the committee’s request to share the original document with the committee members. They said that the SOFA agreement should be shared with the Security Services (241) Committee, and that they would not share a document related to an issue which is part of the responsibility of the Security Services Committee, with the Government Oversight Committee.

Nazim said that a draft agreement was proposed by the U.S. in relation to the military trainings conducted collaboratively by the Maldives and U.S. military. He said that this is the SOFA agreement, and that this agreement had been shared with the President’s Office, Attorney General’s Office and Maldives Customs.

“We shared this agreement with the relevant authorities, and after we did that, I think, the document was somehow leaked. I don’t know who did this. The leaked agreement was altered and shared on social media,” he said.

He refuted claims on social media that it had been agreed to give a region in the Maldives for use by the U.S. military, and assured that the government would not sign an agreement that would affect the independence and sovereignty of the country.