Male’, Maldives – The former President of Maldives and the current Speaker of the Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed says that Maldives needs to pay $15 Million to China within the upcoming 14 days.
Nasheed stated today that China did not give any leniency in any of the debts Maldives owes to them and that the $15 Million that Maldives is required to pay to the Chinese banks within the next 14 days is basically 50% of the profit that the state receives.
While Nasheed states that China did not give any leniency in the debts, the President’s Office of Maldives has announced that the government of China allowed the repayment of some loans to be deferred to the upcoming year.
According to the President’s Office, China allowed leniency in the loans that were given under the Group of Twenty (G20) Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which is an initiative by the World Bank, under which, G-20 countries committed to suspending debt services of low income countries, on official bilateral credits.
However, even after this announcement from the President’s Office, Nasheed said that from what he knows, China has still not restructured any of the loans that were taken by Maldives and that it is very low of China to not give leniency in the loans during such tough times Maldives is facing due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
It surprises me that a big country like China, a developed country, a country with such potential people and a country that is expected to rule the world is asking 04 lakh people in Maldives to repay the debts to their countries tomorrow even if it is by selling our grandmas jewelry.
Nasheed said while talking about China.
However, a few days after Nasheed mentioned about having to sell grandma’s jewelry, the Chinese Ambassador to Maldives, Zhang Lizhong took onto twitter to say that although the jewelry inherited from a grandmother is very precious, China prefers friendship over it as he described friendship as something that is priceless.
In addition to this, Nasheed also said that the debt situation that Maldives is currently facing is due to the previous government (PPM) as they had continued to take loans, without any thought or consideration. However, the leader of the joint opposition coalition, Abdul Raheem Abdulla (Adhurey) denied this accusation and asked Nasheed to learn mathematics properly instead.
