Male’, Maldives – Foreign Minister Abdullah Shahid and Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer have met with the Chinese Ambassador to Maldives in order to discuss bilateral ties, on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Shahid tweeted today, call the meeting with the Chinese Ambassador a very productive one, while the Chinese Ambassador Zhang Lizhong also tweeted that the meeting with the two ministers was very successful and that China will continue to give their support in projects that benefit the citizens.
Very good meeting with Foreign Minister @abdulla_shahid and Financial Minister @iameeru on cooperative response on post-covid economic recovery.
China is committed to more support and fruitful co-op to benefit more people. https://t.co/g4k5uUfd1u— Amb. Zhang Lizhong (@AmbassadorZhang) October 15, 2020
While both Ministers met with the Chinese Ambassador, discussions regarding the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed between both countries during the presidency of Yameen Abdul Qayyoom have also been started, regarding which, Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail said that that agreement should not have been signed in the first place.
Since then, the Chinese Ambassador has responses to Minister Fayyaz saying that the FTA between Maldives and China is of mutual benefit to both the countries and that it is of high-quality. His comments come after the Economic Minister Fayyaz’s comments saying that he was also against the FTA as it can cause issues with other trade partner countries of the state if implemented.
With both China and India vying for power with in the region, Maldives has been getting a lot of assistance from both countries over the past few years.
