An assessment team from the Commonwealth has arrived in Maldives to conduct an evaluation before accepting the country's membership application.
Foreign Secretary Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed welcomed the team on Tuesday.
During their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ghafoor expressed the new Maldives government’s desire to rejoin the Commonwealth.
According to the foreign ministry, Foreign Secretary Ghafoor said that the Maldives has benefitted immensely in the past from being a member of the 53-member state organization, and had been able to contribute to important global discussions on human rights, sustainable development, climate change, and democratic consolidation as a member of the Commonwealth.
Since returning to the Commonwealth is a high priority for President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s government, he sent a letter of interest to rejoin to Secretary-General Patricia Scotland in December 2018.
On the 27th of January, Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid met with the Secretary-General in London and requested that the Commonwealth fast-track Maldives’ rejoining process.
The Commonwealth Secretariat Staff Team is scheduled to meet with the President, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. They will also meet with cabinet ministers and senior officials of the government, independent institutions, major political parties and key media partners in the Maldives.
“The purpose of the assessment mission is to conduct an evaluation of the criteria and the Maldives’ eligibility for membership, to evaluate its aspirations and commitment to the principles of the Commonwealth Charter, and to meet with key officials in the Government,” stated the ministry.
The Commonwealth Team is headed by Albert Mariner, Advisor and Head of Asia/Europe/Caribbean/Pacific in the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The Maldives first joined the Commonwealth in 1982 and left in October 2016, after 34 years as a Member State, after then-President Abdulla Yameen refused to abide by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group after it called on his government to stop violating the rights of his political rivals.
After President Solih’s inauguration, the Maldives is now in the process of fulfilling all the membership requirements to rejoin the organization.
