Ahmed Khaleel, State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Maldives and Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Minister of State for South and Central Asia, UN and the Commonwealth, and Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict of the United Kingdom have engaged in bilateral talks.

Lord Ahmad arrived in the Maldives on Tuesday morning on an official visit and was received by the state minister and senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Velana International Airport.

This was followed by the bilateral talks, where the state ministers engaged in discussions revolved around a wide array of topics including issues of mutual interests and avenues for cooperation.

As such, welcoming Lord Ahmad to the Ministry, State Minister Khaleel expressed the government’s commitment to work closely with the United Kingdom on issues of mutual concern and went on to discuss avenues for cooperation in the areas of higher education, counter-terrorism, defense, environment and climate change, tourism and fisheries including eliminating tariffs for Maldivian Tuna exports to the United Kingdom.

Maldives sought from the UK government to eliminate tariffs for Maldives tuna exports in 2019.

The meeting saw Lord Ahmad and State Minister Khaleel expressing mutual commitment to enhance cooperation in the international arena especially through the Commonwealth.

The meeting was joined by Foreign Secretary, Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, Secretary Multilateral Dr. Hala Hameed as well as senior officials of the Foreign Ministry.