The passing of US Senator John McCain is a huge loss for the Maldives and the Indian Ocean, says former President Mohamed Nasheed.
In a tweet posted on Sunday morning, the former president reminisced on his first meeting with the Republican senator.
“When I first met Senator John McCain, I knew I was meeting a man who had overcome great challenges- severely tortured, kept in solitary confinement,” he said, adding that he was shocked by McCain's knowledge on the Indian Ocean ‘and its shifting allegiances’.
“With his passing we have lost a lot,” added Nasheed.
When I first met @SenJohnMcCain, I knew I was meeting a man who’d overcome great challenges-severely tortured, kept in solitary confinement. What shocked me was that he knew us, our struggle. He knew the Indian Ocean & its shifting allegiances. With his passing we have lost a lot pic.twitter.com/PNJxI9zifD
— Mohamed Nasheed (@MohamedNasheed) August 26, 2018
McCain, 81, died early Sunday morning after a year-long battle with brain cancer surrounded by his wife and family members.
While the six-term US senator was diagnosed with a deadly form of brain cancer called glioblastoma in July 2017, his family on Friday announced his decision to stop treatment.
A maverick politician, McCain was a naval aviator, prisoner of war, conservative statesman, and two-time presidential candidate.
In March 2017, McCain met with former President Nasheed to discuss the situation in Maldives, while his administration’s foreign minister Ahmed Naseem met with the senator in January 2016 in their work to free Nasheed from imprisonment.
Senator McCain had been a close friend of the Maldives, and had always been an advocate for universal human rights.
