Maldives closes High Commission in Bangladesh

Maldives on Tuesday closed down its High Commission in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Maldives Acting High Commissioner to Bangladesh Ahmed Adil on Monday said that the mission had to be closed down due to “unprecedented fiscal problems" in the Maldives, reported a Bangladeshi local paper.

“Even the foreign ministry’s budget has been slashed by 40 percent. It’s a very big cut. We had no other option but to close (the mission),” Ahmed Adil said.

He said that despite the shut down, the “excellent” bilateral relations between Maldives and Bangladesh would continue and that an alternative arrangement would be sought to bridge the absence of a mission in Dhaka.

In the meantime, Maldives will continue to operate in Bangladesh from its mission in New Delhi, India.

Maldives Foreign Ministry was unavailable for comment at the time of press.

Maldives opened its mission in Dhaka in July 2008, while Bangladesh mission in Male' was opened in 1998. A considerable portion of the expatriate worker population in the Maldives is from Bangladesh.