India, who has been providing various financial assistance to the Maldives, has said that this is being done with “trust.”
Indian High Commissioner to Maldives, Sunjay Sudhir, said this during an exclusive interview on RaajjeTV’s ‘Maldives Weekly’ on Saturday. The high commissioner said this is response to a question regarding how they ensure that the financial grants provided are not misused.
“This is a relationship based on trust. So, we trust the leadership, we trust the government here. And our financial assistance does not come with any conditions that this has to be used for this particular purpose or housing… It does not come with any conditions, because we trust the leadership, we trust the government”High Commissioner, Sunjay Sudhir
Noting that the assistance is provided following requests, Sudhir said that they leave it to the government for “the best judgement on how to use it.”
“We all see that there are mechanisms within the government to deal with issues [like] corruption and other things, its not for us to bother about, it’s for the government and people of Maldives to bother about, proper utilization of that financial assistance”High Commissioner, Sunjay Sudhir
Speaking regarding the financial package of USD 250 million announced on August 12 as a budgetary support, Sudhir said that the decision to provide the aid was following a request from the Maldivian government due to the negative impacts of Covid-19.
Noting that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has had a “very debilitating” impact on all countries across the globe, the high commissioner said that countries like Maldives were hit in a disproportionately high manner due to reliance on tourism and export of fisheries.
“Now, how the government of Maldives will use that is entirely for the government of Maldives to decide”High Commissioner, Sunjay Sudhir
