India calls upon Maldives to fulfill legal procedures in relation to GMR contract

India has called upon the Maldives to “fulfill” all necessary legal procedures in unilaterally terminating the agreement it has with Indian multinational giant GMR, under which the company became the operator of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).

INIA, the only international Airport in the Maldives, was leased for a period of 25 years to GMR by former President Mahomet Nasheed’s administration in 2010, allegedly through a process of unprecedented corruption, illegal decisions, and extreme neglect of Maldivian national interests.

In the aftermath of a Singapore court decision ruling that the Maldivian government had the authority to take back the INIA from GMR, Syed Akbaruddin, official spokesperson at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, said yesterday, according to Press Trust of India, that the Indian “ministry as well as the Indian High Commission in Malé is studying the judgment and their lawyers need to understand it”.

Syed Akbaruddin is reported to have said that there are two issues in the case—“one sovereign right of a nation and other legality of the agreement, which was linked to compensation of GMR and its associates in Malaysia”, and that the latter is not addressed by the Singapore court verdict. “These issues are not affected with judgment or not responded to … fulfillment of all legal process and requirement is what we want to see in this case and we hope that all relevant contracts and agreements would be adhered to and all legal process are carried out”, PTI quoted Akbaruddin.

While India has called upon the Maldives that the latter should not take any arbitrary and coercive actions to kick GMR out of the country before the legal procedures are completed in accord with the contract, many in the Maldives feel that the contract is by all means unfair and unreasonable when viewed from a Maldivian perspective.

While the Maldives and the Maldivians have always considered India to be more than just a friend, there has been tension between the two countries over the issue.

However, the President Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik has assured that the Maldives would never turn its back on India and her friendship. In a special Presidential Statement issued last night, the President said that “the Maldives guarantees the Indian government and people that Indian workers in the INIA as well as other sectors of the Maldives would be able to live in the country with full security and contentment”. The Statement also said that “the GMR agreement is a commercial contract. I am sure that the decision by the Maldivian government to terminate this contract would not in any way damage the age-old brotherhood and friendly relations between India and the Maldives. It is the hope of the Maldivian government and people that the relations between the two nations would continue to boost and flower in the future”.