Maldivessigned an agreement on the G-20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) with the government of France, on Thursday.

With an agreement to temporarily suspend debt service payments owed to bilateral creditors, Omar Abdul Razzak, High Commissioner of Maldives to Sri Lanka and Eric Lavertu, Ambassador of France to Maldives signed the agreement on Thursday.

Following the signing ceremony, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulla Shahid expressed gratitude to the government of France for facilitating the arrangement at a time Maldives is facing an "urgent" phase of economic recovery.

Senior officials from the Maldives High Commission and the Embassy of France were in attendance at the ceremony.

The agreement will contribute “directly” to the economic recovery efforts that are currently ongoing in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It will also improve debt transparency and debt management at a time a number of economic challenges have surfaced amid the pandemic.

This comes at a time the government also signed an Exchange of Notes with Japan, on the G20, Group of 20 nations, DSSI which came into effect on May 1, this year. The Exchange of notes with Japan was signed earlier this week and on Wednesday, the government signed a debt relief agreement with the United States of America as well.

The island nation’s Minister of Finance, Ibrahim Ameer signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Treatment of Debt Services, alongside representatives of numerous other creditor countries including the U.S, Japan and France, in September 2020.

G20 announced a six-month extension in October, giving developing countries until the end of June 2021 to prioritize expenses towards health care and emergency stimulus programmes rather than repaying debts.

USD five billion has been delivered as relief to over 40 eligible countries, under the initative.