Male’, Maldives –Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Shahid has met with the Chinese Ambassador to the Maldives Zhang Lizhong and have exchanged views on wide range of issues of mutual interest to both parties.
Ambassador Zhang, who has had multiple similar meetings with Minister Shahid has tweeted out that it was a pleasure to meet FM Shahid to exchange views on wide range of issues of mutual interest, adding that he is looking forward to an enhanced and closer co-op between the two sides in the year 2021 to bring more concrete benefits.
Minister Shahid also tweeted on the matter, stating that today’s meeting deliberated on ways to advance our economic & development cooperation.
Zhang has previously clashed with The former President of Maldives and the current Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed on Twitter on two separate occasions regarding the huge debt incurred by the Maldives to China.
The debt issue has been reportedly discussed multiple times between the two countries, according to both Amb. Zhang and Minister Shahid, with the President’s Office stating that 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.
