No country has filed a reservation in Maldives application to rejoin the Commonwealth of Nations

Member states of the Commonwealth of nations have endorsed the Maldives re-admission to the organization, to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland.

SG Scotland addressed a letter to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Tuesday, writing that she had found her consultation with the governments regarding Maldives re-submission as a member, satisfactory.

In the letter, Scotland expressed that none of the member states have expressed dissatisfaction with the Maldives re-submission which she describes to be an important step in the procedure.

Following this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Tuesday, which highlights that the assessment reports by the two commonwealth delegations that arrived in Maldives earlier for assessment as well as the one by the elections’ observers’ mission, have been shared with the governments, which accepted the reports.

While a Commonwealth delegation was in Maldives during August to assess the country’s re-submission, FM Shahid had expressed Maldives commitment to “promote and uphold the ideals of the group including promotion of democratic norms and good governance as well as to strengthen accountability, transparency and human rights”.

The statement further reads that the Maldives has done the needful for the re-admission process and SG Scotland has given assurance that the country’s membership process will be completed, in early 2020. In this regard, assurance has been given that Maldives will be a member of the organization before the Commonwealth Summit to be held in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2020.

In addition, member states have urged Maldives re-admission into the organization to be fast-tracked, reads the statement.

SG Scotland was formally presented with the documentation required “under the membership criteria” by FM Shahid during June this year.

The Maldives joined the commonwealth on 9 July 1982.

The previous administration of former President Abdulla Yameen reached the decision to leave the group in 2016 after claiming that the Commonwealth was “interfering” with the country’s domestic affairs. However, the incumbent government made it a key pledge to rejoin the group.

The re-admission process is a four-step process that begins with the contender expressing interest to join the group which is then followed by an assessment taken by the SG. This is followed by the consultation of member states after which the applicant will be invited to make a formal submission.

The applicant is then required to provide official documents of “functioning of democratic processes and popular support in that country for joining the Commonwealth”.