Foreign Ministry responds to Zaki

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responded to former Special Envoy to the President Ibrahim Hussain Zaki’s recent statements, where he said that if Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) were in government, Indian forces would be ‘on the ground’ by now to defend GMR.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dhunya Maumoon said that Zaki’s comments denote plans to carry out activities against the wishes of the Maldivian people.

“To say that if they were in government, they would bring in Indian forces to defend this place – I think this is very sad. This shows that they plan to forcefully implement things that are not wanted by the people of Maldives,” Dhunya said.

Dhunya also referred to Zaki’s claim that the activities against GMR are related to an Islamic fundamentalist issue, and said that this is not true.

“Zaki said that it is religious fundamentals in the Maldives that are working against GMR. The purpose of this claim is to mislead people. People of the Maldives and as well as others are protesting against this issue [the award of the airport to GMR], so these accusations against one group of people are not true,” she said.

Dhunya expressed confidence on behalf of the government that India would fully respect the independence and sovereignty of the Maldives.