Ali Zahir Misrepresents Yameen Govt Action Plan On National TV

The President’s Office’s Chief of Staff, Ali Zahir, has falsely characterized the Action Plan signed between former President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayyoom and India as an agreement.

Speaking on an appearance on a Public Service Media programme last night, Zahir had claimed that the basis of the current bilateral agreements signed between India and the Solih administration had been the “Security Cooperation agreement” signed by the Yameen administration. Zahir had claimed that that “agreement” contained the Uthuru Thila Falhu agreement, and also that a hydrography survey of Maldivian waters be conducted by India.

The document to which Zahir had referred was the Security Cooperation Action Plan. An Action Plan is a non-binding agreement which highlights the main points of projects to be conducted by two parties, if they both agree to it, in the future.

The Yameen administration had never signed formal agreement acquiescing to any of the points contained in the Security Cooperation Action Plan. The Action Plan had been signed with three years remaining in Yameen’s presidency. Many PSIP projects had been implemented during those three years, yet no agreements had been drawn up to implement any of the points in the Action Plan.

Zahir also went on to claim that the “India Out” campaign was a futile reaction from the opposition as they had had “nothing to say” about the “major development projects” being implemented by the Solih administration. He said that this was the kind of thing done by rivals when they had “run out of things to say”.