Documents related to agreements made with China, missing: President Solih

Documents related to Maldives’ agreements made with China during former president Abdulla Yameen’s visit to Beijing in 2017 are missing, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has said.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, President Solih said that significant amounts of documents created by the previous government remains to be ‘found’ and that this has obstructed efforts to fully understand the impact of them on the Maldives.

“We do not know the details of some of the agreements that were made, especially those signed by President Yameen during his visit to China but we are looking for them”, Solih said.

Solih said this in response to a question about whether or not the Maldivian government has ever signed a contract with a foreign entity that would allow alien military presence in the Maldives. Solih added that he does not believe that the Yameen administration would have signed an agreement that grossly undermined Maldives’ sovereignty and security.

However, Solih said that Maldives’ debt to China totals about USD 1.4 billion and carry high interest rates, adding that they are in negotiation to extend the deadline to repay, and to reduce the interest rates.

Solih also revealed that in the government’s efforts to relieve the debt, they have discussed payment of ongoing projects given to Chinese companies to be made in Maldivian rufiyaa as opposed to US dollars, which would allow foreign reserves to stay untouched.