Friday
22nd Nov 2024
Dhivehi Edition
President Nasheed and Indian PM Modi.
Former President and current speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has stated that it is necessary to have a foreign military base in the Maldives.
President Nasheed made these comments at the tea room in the People's Majlis yesterday. The sister newspaper of Maldives Journal, Dhiyares News was reliably informed that President Nasheed had made the aforementioned comments in the presence of other Members of Parliament. A trusted and confidential source revealed that the following Members of Parliament, Hanimaadhoo constituency Abdul Ghafoor Moosa, Hassan Ahmed for Inguraidhoo constituency, MP Mohamed Saeed for Maavashu constituency, MP Hussain Mohamed Latheef for Faresmaathodaa constituency, and MP Adam Shareef Umar for Maduvvari constituency were present at the time the comments were made.
Dhiyares contacted a number of the other MPs present at the tea room to verify whether President Nasheed had stated it was necessary to establish a military base in the Maldives. They verified that President Nasheed had indeed made the comments and that he justified it by stating that the Maldives could not stay isolated in an interconnected and dependent world and that is why a military base was necessary.
The opposition has previously called to submit the UTF agreement to the parliament. President Nasheed has intervened to block the movement, stating that it was an infrastructure agreement and that it was not under the parliament's mandate to take on such matters.
MP Adam Shareef had also previously submitted a letter to Speaker Nasheed, stating the importance of having the parliamentary National security committee review the UTF agreement to guarantee that it imposed no risk to our sovereignty. A few MDP members in the committee have also stated they will support to have the agreement reviewed in the committee.