Official talks have been held between the governments of Maldives and Turkey.

As part of his recent brief official visit to the Maldives, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives and President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Abdulla Shahid sat down for official talks on Sunday morning.

The talks were held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and discussions revolved around a wide array of issues of mutual concern including areas of education, youth and sports, health, tourism, fisheries and agriculture, environment and climate change, economic cooperation, and counter-terrorism and de-radicalization.

The talks saw the Maldivian minister extending a proposal to establish a visa-free regime between Maldives and Türkiye, which was accepted by the Turkish minister.

This will in turn pave the way for Maldivians to travel to Turkey without obtaining a visa beforehand and will increase people-to-people contact between the two countries.

Further, the two ministers reaffirmed commitment to strengthen cooperation in the international arena, particularly in addressing the contemporary challenges of the Muslim word.

The talks also saw the Turkish minister committing the government of Turkey’s support to Maldives’ candidature for the United Nations Human Rights Council for the term 2023-2025.

Further, FM Shahid conveyed the Maldivian government’s support for Turkey’s bid to host the 51st Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Islamic Conference (OIC) in 2025.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu concluded his official visit to the Maldives on Sunday and was seen off at the airport by FM Shahid and senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The visit came upon the invitation of his Maldivian counterpart.

This was the first time a foreign minister of Turkey visited the Maldives.