Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 23, 2002

About Us
Contact Us
Front Page
News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Front Page Printer Friendly Page   Send this Article to a Friend

Red carpet welcome in Male

By V. Jayanth

MALE Sept. 22. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, arrived here today on a four-day official visit. The visit has been described as an attempt by "close neighbours" to have a very special relationship. Apart from economic cooperation, the Prime Minister will endeavour to forge a closer political coordination in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and other international organisations.

Over the next three days, the Prime Minister will hold one-to-one meetings with the Maldives President, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and other leaders.

Male rolled out the red carpet for Mr. Vajpayee with Mr. Gayoom personally going to the airport to receive him and his delegation.

Mr. Vajpayee inspected a guard of honour and was introduced to the Maldivian Ministers, top officials and foreign diplomats. The Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives, S.M. Gavai, and the Chief of Protocol, Abdulla Hameed, invited the Prime Minister to disembark.

As part of India's continuing effort to "deepen and strengthen" bilateral ties with its neighbours and reaching out to fellow-members of the South Asian community, the Prime Minister is undertaking this visit at the invitation of the Maldivian President.

Mr. Vajpayee's visit comes as a climax to a conscious build-up in bilateral ties under the present NDA regime. It began with the visit of the Minister of State for External Affairs, Omar Abdullah, in October 2001, followed by the visit of the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, in July this year, soon after he took charge.

The Maldives, Foreign Ministry officials explain, has assumed significance on many fronts. Known as the `land of the atolls', the archipelago is not only strategically located in the Indian Ocean, but is also part of the SAARC, CHOGM and the OIC. Mr. Gayoom has steered the country from 1978 and remains the only Head of State among the founders of SAARC.

Though India was among the first countries to recognise the Maldives, when it became independent in 1965, bilateral relations began to warm up in the 1980s. The attempted coup in the archipelago in 1988, by a Sri Lankan Tamil militant group, which India helped to abort, could be described as a "turning point" in ties. From then on, there have been a string of high-level bilateral visits and Mr. Vajpayee's adds to this exchange.

New Delhi's help has been multi-faceted. Apart from the military assistance provided in 1988, India provides regular training for the Maldivian military and police personnel. The focus shifted to human resource development, then health care and gradually moving into economic and technical cooperation.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription
Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu