Maldives president congratulates Biden on inauguration

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their inauguration as the President and Vice President of the United States.

Taking to Twitter shortly after the new president and his deputy were sworn in on Wednesday, President Solih extended felicitations to Biden on taking oath of office as the 46th US president and Harris on taking oath as the 49th Vice President of U.S.

Highlighting that Maldives and the United States are friends and partners, Solih expressed hope to work with the pair in order to grow the existing friendship and further enhance the shared values between both countries.

Following Biden’s landslide win in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the Maldives president expressed that he was looking forward to work with Biden’s administration “on issues of mutual concern from global to recover from Covid-19 to responding to the climate emergency”.

Biden’s inauguration brought an end to one of the “most dramatic” administrations as described by international media outlets, in political transactions observed in the United States. Biden, 78, is the oldest individual to have been inaugurated as president of the U.S.

Further, newly inaugurated U.S. Vice President, Harris is the first woman as well as person of color to have been inaugurated to Vice Presidency in America’s political history.

Following his inauguration, Biden, who promises to reverse his predecessor Donald Trump’s key policies, stated that “democracy has prevailed”. After his election win, Biden had said that the time to heal America has come.

Biden and Harris’s inaugurations were undertaken at the U.S Capitol, which was stormed by ferocious Trump supporters rioting his defeat, earlier this month. Following this, the inauguration ceremony was undertaken with over 20,000 national guards protecting the ceremony. No spectators were allowed at the ceremony, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the inauguration of the incumbent Solih administration in 2018, relations between Maldives and U.S. saw a major improvement, with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo making an official visit to the island nation last year, becoming the first US Secretary of State to visit the country in 16 years.