PM Modi to attend swearing-in of Maldives president-elect on Nov 17

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will finally travel to Maldives, the only Saarc-member he has not visited during his current tenure as PM, to participate in the oath-taking ceremony of Maldivian President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on November 17.

The ministry of external affairs (MEA) said PM Modi had “accepted the invitation with pleasure”, adding that “in keeping with our ‘neighbourhood first’ policy, India looks forward to closely work with Maldives in further deepening our partnership”. But the visit is not being categorised as a bilateral visit.

On Friday, the MEA said, “Regarding the invitation from President-elect Solih of Maldives to PM (Modi) to attend the swearing-in ceremony on 17 November, the PM has accepted the invitation with pleasure. In keeping with our ‘neighbourhood first’ policy, India looks forward to closely work with Maldives in further deepening our partnership. PM will return to New Delhi on the same night.”

PM Modi had not visited the Maldives so far due to the strained ties between India and Maldives’ outgoing President Abdulla Yameen. Mr Solih had defeated Mr Yameen in the presidential polls a few weeks ago.

On PM Modi’s two-day scheduled visit to Singapore on November 14 and 15, the MEA said, “The PM will make an official visit to Singapore to attend the 13th East Asia Summit and associated meetings on 14th and 15th of November. PM is also expected to participate in a number of other events including a keyn-ote address at the Singa-pore Fintech Summit.”

Meanwhile, in response to a question on the situation in Sri Lanka, where President Maithripala Sirisena recently sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe as PM and appointed former President Mahinda Rajap-aksa as PM, New Delhi made it clear that it was not looking to engage with any political party in the current “fluid” situation but maintained that it would continue with its development assistance programmes in the island nation.