At the SAARC foreign minister’s meeting on Thursday, Maldives helped India in putting a hold and blocking the bid on the 19th SAARC summit. The agenda of the SAARC foreign ministers’ to search the possibilities for the summit to be organized.
Maldives helps India block bid to hold Saarc summit in Pakistan https://t.co/xrPlEBR4Cb
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) September 26, 2020
Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid while addressing SAARC, called for creation of a conducive environment to reach consensus on convening the 19th SAARC summit. “At this point, we are preoccupied with dealing with Covid-19 pandemic and do not think It is the appropriate time to discus the time of summit,” he said. The current SAARC chair Nepal had put the stalled summit process on meeting agenda, calling for member states to explore options to hold the summit. The proposal had to be dropped.
Earlier Maldives stood up for India at the OIC. At an OIC meeting in May, the Maldives refused to support any action by the organization which singled out India for “Islamophobia”. Even as the OIC looked to step up attacks on India, the Maldives said singling out India for Islamophobia would not just be factually incorrect but also detrimental to religious harmony in South Asia.
The SAARC summit was to be organized at Islamabad in Pakistan in the year 2016. After the URI incident in 2016 India called out for boycott of the event since then, the summit is on hold. This can be considered as a diplomatic win for India to block the way for Pakistan to host the event.
