It gives me great pleasure to welcome Your Excellencies to the Maldives and to the Fourth Policy dialogue between the Government of Maldives and the European Union.
We appreciate your valuable participation today, which demonstrates the close cooperation that we have with the EU and your respective countries. I would also like to thank my colleagues, and senior officials from various government agencies for joining us here today. Excellencies,
Since its inception in 2015, the Maldives- EU Policy dialogue, has been an important platform for the Government and the EU Heads of Missions to engage directly on issues of mutual interest. We meet this year as the people of the Maldives welcome a new government. A government characterized by the desire for the promotion of human rights, good governance and the rule of law. The people of Maldives have whole heartedly embraced this new dawn with their determination for openness, international engagement and by human centric development. I wish to invite our European friends to join and partner with us in welcoming the new dawn in realizing the aspirations of the people of the Maldives.
The longstanding partnership that we have with the EU is unique and exemplary. Our cooperation is multi-fold, which ranges from Climate Change adaptation and mitigation efforts to global security issues such as combatting terrorism and violent extremism. The Maldives receives a large number of tourists from the EU and benefits immensely from the foreign direct investments of EU member countries.
We have also received valuable support towards governance reforms and have always been encouraged by the EU’s commitment towards judicial reform and democracy consolidation in the Maldives. The people of the Maldives appreciate the EU and its member states for the strong stance taken in recent history, whenever the Maldives deviated from the democratic path. This has strengthened the resolve of the people and the democratic resilience of the country.
Excellencies,
We see this dialogue as an important opportunity to enhance the existing cooperation and explore further avenues for engagement between the Maldives and the EU.
I am encouraged by the recent scoping visits of EU experts to the Maldives. The focus areas of these experts, which includes, strengthening our existing legal and judicial framework, support for counter-terrorism and counter-violent extremism efforts and implementing anti-corruption measures, are priority areas of the Government. We hope that the experts had fruitful engagements with all the key stakeholders in the Maldives and have already identified potential areas of support.
Excellencies,
Our discussions today will focus on the key thematic areas, that we have identified based on our engagements with the EU and the development objectives of the current government.
This include:
Human rights, democracy and strengthening of the justice sector
Promotion and protection of human rights
Environment and climate change
Development Cooperation
Security Cooperation
We would also like to explore ways to ease the Schengen Visa application process for Maldivians, in the absence of diplomatic presence from EU member states.
My colleagues will therefore update you on the important work carried out by their respective Ministries under these thematic areas and we hope this would lead to a constructive discussion and ultimately a favourable outcome for both the Maldives and the EU.