Two new ambassadors and one new high commissioner have presented their credentials to President Solih on Monday.
Firstly, the Ambassador of the Republic of Colombia to the Republic of Maldives, H.E. Mariana Pacheco Montes presented her letter of credence to President Solih.
At the meeting held afterwards, President Solih congratulated the Ambassador on her new appointment and welcomed her to the Maldives. During the meeting, the President and the Ambassador spoke on a wide range of topics, including the strengthening of bilateral relations, trade relations, human resources, and capacity development.
Speaking with the Ambassador, President Solih expressed that developmental efforts are at the foremost of the administration’s priorities. He said that the Maldives is interested in welcoming foreign investments to the country in a wide scope of areas including the higher education sector and manufacturing. The President spoke at length about tourism and how the Maldives had reopened its borders after the pandemic to welcome guests into the country.
The President noted that environmental protection and climate change are also critical issues for the Maldives. They spoke of the existential threats posed by rising sea levels and how small lifestyle changes could go a long way, including opting for renewable energy and the ban of single-use plastics.
Additionally, H.E. Poj Harnpol, the new Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to the Republic of Maldives also presented his credentials to President Solih.
At the meeting held afterwards, President Solih welcomed the Ambassador to the Maldives, congratulated him on his appointment, and shared insights on the Maldives’ close bilateral relations with Thailand.
During the meeting, the President and the Ambassador discussed potential areas of cooperation, such as investment prospects, trade and commerce, increasing people-to-people contact, human rights protection and combatting climate change. The President also stressed the Maldivian government’s commitment to exploring higher education scholarship opportunities for Maldivian students.
Concluding the call, the President and the Ambassador expressed their commitment to further strengthening the long-standing bilateral relationship between the two countries. Diplomatic ties between the Maldives and Thailand were established on June 21, 1979.
Lastly, the new High Commissioner of the Republic of Malta to the Republic of Maldives, H.E. Reuben Gauci presented his credentials to President Solih on Monday afternoon.
At the meeting held afterwards, President Solih welcomed the High Commissioner to the Maldives and congratulated him on his appointment. The High Commissioner highlighted the similarities between the Maldives and Malta, ranging from geographical features to multilateralism ideologies.
During the meeting, both the President and the High Commissioner expressed their desire to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. In this regard, more discussions were held on mutually beneficial areas such as human resource development, exploring higher educational prospects, tourism sector collaboration, pandemic management, and climate change ambitions. Furthermore, additional discussions were held to explore commercial and financial cooperation.
The High Commissioner expressed his wish to work closely with the Maldives in facilitating further cooperation and opportunities. The President and the High Commissioner highlighted the strong Maldives – EU partnership and stressed for further cooperation on issues of fish tariff, visa facilitation and Counter-Terrorism.
Concluding the call, the President expressed his commitment to further strengthening the long-standing bilateral relationship between the two countries. Diplomatic ties between the Maldives and Malta were established on March 5, 1985.
