Maldives president congratulates Joe Biden on election win

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory in the 2020 US presidential election.

Solih also emphasized that he looks forward to working with Biden’s administration “on issues of mutual concern from global to recover from Covid-19 to responding to the climate emergency”, via a Tweet sent shortly after the presidential race was officially called by most major US media outlets.

The Maldivian president is among the many world leaders that congratulated the US president-elect, who won over President Donald Trump who was vying for reelection. Following the loss, Trump became the first US president to fail to win a second term.

US presidents are only allowed to sit for a maximum of two, four-year terms.

Addressing the public for the first time since been declared winner, after a record voter turnot, President-elect Biden said that “this is a time to heal in America”.

While Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States, he is the oldest president-elect in history; Biden turns 78 in November.

His four decades in public life began under Richard Nixon's presidency, when Biden was first elected to the Senate, and includes eight years as vice president to former President Barack Obama.

Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris is the first woman, person of colour and of Asian descent to hold the position of vice president-elect.

Both Biden and Harris will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

Maldives' relations with the United States improved vastly after the incumbent administration took office in November 2018, which was evident by the recent visit by the country's Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

While Pompeo had announced the decision to open a US embassy in the Maldives, he said such a decision would not have been made if they did not believe that the situation in Maldives had not improved.