Joint Press Conference with the President of the Republic of Maldives
28 April 2025
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
- And again, it is a pleasure to welcome our honoured friend, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu, President of the Republic of Maldives.
- This is Excellency inaugural visit to this country. Notwithstanding, we have had excellent bilateral relations between the two countries. Both are maritime countries, which means the area for collaboration is wide open. And I’m very pleased in the series of meetings we have had this morning and the bilateral meeting with ministers. You see we have a large number of ministers both from Maldives and from Malaysia. That shows the importance we place to our friendly neighbour, although quite a bit of a distant but a beautiful country.
- The collaboration of course covers a wide area includes now education, tourism, training Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) and now extending to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), TVET and higher education, university exchanges, sports, health and as we have seen, even exchange of notes in training diplomats, bilateral consultations.
- And President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu have been extremely articulate and outspoken in terms of climate change in the position that this country has taken to call on the international community to respect the need to protect the environment and share the responsibility. And we are with him on this, and we follow with great interest and we support the strong expression voiced by the President.
- But also outstanding is the present position vis-à-vis Palestine and the very courageous decision to bar those with Israeli passports into Maldives. Although we from the time of independence have not given a recognition. Primarily because of the refusal on the part of Israel to respect human rights, to honour international commitments and to stop genocide in Palestine and in particular Gaza. We share the same sentiments and aspirations and I have expressed on behalf of the government and the people of Malaysia that we certainly caught him with high respects and accolades for his courage and principled stance.
- Now there are areas that is considered new that we need to collaborate further. That includes floating solar, defence and digital. So, I again would reiterate my profound respects for him and thank you very much because the last visit of the President of the Maldives here was in 2016. And incidentally, this is the President’s first visit to Malaysia, which is quite rare for Maldivian.
- But knowing him and and engaging with him, I mean, I feel very comfortable. This is part of us. He understands our culture, he shares our views. And I certainly on behalf again of the people and government and the people of Malaysia would extend my profound thanks and appreciation.
Thank you.