Ex-President Nasheed to visit Saudi Arabia upon King Salman's invitation, on Monday

Saudi King, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has invited self-exiled former President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, who is currently living in the United Kingdom after being granted political asylum there, to Saudi Arabia.

RaajjeMV understands that Nasheed has accepted the invitation and will be departing to the Kingdom on the 15th of October. Neither he, nor his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has confirmed the trip, nor have they shared any details regarding the trip, with the press. A credible source had confirmed his departure date to RaajjeMV.

During Nasheed’s tenure, then crown Prince Salman had visited the Maldives, and he had also visited the Maldives during the current administration.

While Nasheed is scheduled to travel to Saudi on Monday, he had back in 2017, accused the Saudi Kingdom of wanting to establish a military base in the Maldives that would safeguard their oil trade routes to their new markets as well as to have strategic installations and infrastructure.

King Salman had sent a special delegation to congratulate President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih following his momentous win in the Presidential polls held on the 23rd of September. The kingdom had also congratulated him via phone call through which discussions were held about their interest in working with Solih’s government ‘to developing and strengthening’ the relations between both countries. The King also expressed his ‘keenness to develop the distinguished relations between the two countries in various fields’.