European Union (EU) has launches a new project to support Maldives in its efforts to counter-terrorism and prevent violent extremism.
The project was launched during the First Senior Officials Meeting between Maldives and EU held in Maldives on February 9. The project is an initiative under the USD 2.78 million allocated for EU-Maldives security cooperation.
The Senior Officials Meeting is a new mechanism for consultations established during the visit of Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid to Brussels in June 2019 to enhance cooperation between Maldives and the EU through yearly exchanges at the level of senior officials. The meeting gave evidence to the strengthened bilateral relations between the two partners since Maldives renewed its commitment to consolidate democracy, ensure good governance, and strengthen the rule of law following the presidential election in 2018.
Coinciding with the meeting, the EU launched a new project to support Maldives in its efforts to counter-terrorism and prevent violent extremism, under the USD 2.78 million allocated for EU-Maldives security cooperation. The project launched will be implemented jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and local stakeholders.
Both the EU and Maldives reiterated their interest to step up cooperation on global challenges such as climate change and environmental issues. In December, the EU adopted the European Green Deal, pledging to become the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and to work with partners to tackle the challenges of climate change.
The EU highlighted the Financing Agreement of 5 million euros to support Maldives to implement its Nationally Determined Contributions, and the 45 million euros loan by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support renewable energy projects signed in 2019 as a demonstration of the commitment from EU to step up cooperation in this area.
Recalling they are partners in trade and investment, both Maldives and the EU agreed to continue to facilitate trade and investment by European companies through the Business Roundtable initiative. Maldives reiterated its request to the EU to consider granting duty free access for tuna products. The EU acknowledged the efforts deployed by Maldives to complete the consolidation of the Maldivian systems to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and trusted that the upcoming technical mission to Maldives would confirm the constructive cooperation in the area and ascertain that EUs initial concerns have been addressed.
The thematic areas covered during the inaugural Senior Officials Meeting included governance, democracy, human rights, rule of law; prevention of violent extremism and counter-terrorism; economic and trade cooperation; sectoral cooperation in areas such as fisheries, environment, taxation reform, Schengen Visa facilitation, education, social development; and regional and international cooperation on issues such as climate change.
At the meeting, Maldives also reiterated its request for visa free travel for Maldivian nationals to travel to EU member states with the view of strengthening existing ties between Maldives and the EU. The discussions were co-chaired by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Maldives Ahmed Khaleel and Deputy Managing Director for Asia and Pacific, European External Action Service Paola Pampaloni.
During her visit, Deputy Managing Director Pampaloni also made courtesy calls on President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed, and held meetings with civil society, political parties and members of the diplomatic community.