Canada

Advisor at the President’s Office Ibrahim Moosa Luthfee has said that the recent statement against Maldives by Canada is likely to have adverse impact on the relations between the two countries.

He said that President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik will make a decision on this issue once he returns to Maldives from his current vacation.

Luthfee made these statements while speaking on VTV last night.

He said that the release of such a statement by a big country such as Canada against Maldives is rather threatening, and that the news had made headlines around the world.

“This statement would change the image of Maldives. We are a small country with limited means of media. We can’t act at the same level as big, rich countries like Canada. This was a well-planned attack with the purpose of causing harm to our country. I hope the Canadian government will reconsider this action, and issue a statement against the first one,” he said.

Luthfee refuted Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) claims that the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) removed Maldives from its agenda on certain conditions, and said that the statement issued by CMAG in this regard is very useful.

“The statement issued by CMAG was about assisting with strengthening democracy and judiciary, among other things. This means they are not interested in interfering with internal issues of Maldives. As an organisation in which Maldives is a member, they had extended assistance in resolving the recent unrest, building a brighter future and establishing a democratic society,” he said.

He stressed that the CMAG’s statement was not about punishing Maldives, and assured that neither the government nor the people of Maldives should be threatened by this statement.

Luthfee said that the statement will not obstruct foreign investment or the economy of Maldives in any way.

A statement issued on 28 September by Canadian Foreign Affair Minister John Baird says that Canada is deeply troubled by the travel ban imposed on former President Mohamed Nasheed on 25 September.

John Baird said that he had “directly raised the persecution of 19 other Maldives Democratic Party politicians and party officials directly to President Waheed”; and further criticising the current government, he had said that he found the declining state of democratic values in the Maldives alarming and deeply troubling.