President Muizzu returns to Male’ after Saudi, Azerbaijan trips

President Dr. Mohamed Muizz returned to the Male’ on Friday morning after concluding two key visits to Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.

The President first traveled to Saudi Arabia during which he attended the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit hosted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Speaking at the summit, President Muizzu underscored the crucial need for Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Ummah to come together to support Palestine’s pursuit of freedom and dignity.

In this trajectory, he urged the international community to step up their support both financially and politically in ending Israel’s war on Gaza.

President Muizzu then traveled to Azerbaijan to participate in the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29). There, he emphasized the urgent need for climate finance and strong global action on climate change.

In this regard, he emphasized that the new climate finance goal must reflect the true scale of the climate crisis and noted that the need is in trillions, “not billions”.

While noting that the summit must consider special circumstances of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as the Maldives, he said that the summit must also include adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, and increase contributions made towards enhancing SIDS’ resilience and climate adaptation efforts.

On the sidelines of the event, President Muizzu also met with his Azerbaijan counterpart Ilham Aliyev during which he expressed interest in increasing Azerbaijani investments in the Maldives. Meanwhile, President Aliyev expressed interest in enhancing economic cooperation between the two countries.

President Muizzu also met with Jin Liqun, the President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) during which he sought the bank’s support for Maldives’ 20-year development masterplan.