Confident that Maldives will be removed from CMAG

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has said that the Maldives was included in the agenda of Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) against Commonwealth regulations, and expressed confidence that the issue pertaining to Maldives will be removed soon.

The President said this at the press conference held yesterday afternoon, to mark the first 100 days since his assumption of office as the President of Maldives.

He said that there is a group of people attempting to influence CMAG to make certain decisions about Maldives, and that Commonwealth itself had expressed dismay over how they handled the situation in the Maldives.

“I am certain that Maldives will be removed from CMAG’s agenda. I also know that Commonwealth would regret how they dealt with our situation. Things will hopefully get better from now on,” the President said.

He said that questions had been posed to Commonwealth on how the Maldives was included on CMAG’s agenda and that several other countries also agree that it was not conducted according to Commonwealth regulations.

“We have posed questions to Commonwealth on this issue. I am aware that some other countries also agree that it was not done correctly,” the President said.

He said that the government cooperated with Commonwealth on this issue not because it believed that Maldives was included on CMAG’s agenda according to regulations, but because the government had nothing to hide.

“The government has nothing to hide, we wanted transparency in how things were conducted,” he said.

The President stressed that internal issues should be settled by holding discussions, and that it is never good for the country to allow foreign influence in resolving such matters.