India steps up diplomatic outreach to stabilise Maldives

Herald Globe (IANS) Friday 10th February, 2012

With the crisis in Maldives deepening after the resignation of Mohamed Nasheed as president, India is mobilising international support and has reached out to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to help bring stability to the Indian Ocean nation.

Two days after the resignation of Nasheed amid a police mutiny, M. Ganapathi, secretary (West) in the external affairs ministry, Thursday briefed the ambassadors of the US, Britain, France, China and Russia, as also Sri Lanka, on its assessment of the unfolding crisis in the Maldives.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday sent Ganapthi as his special envoy to talk to all key political interlocutors in the Maldives to help the feuding factions come to a political understanding to form a broad-based national government of unity.

Contrary to reports of a coup, which Nasheed himself has alleged, India believes that the current crisis is primarily political in nature and is an internal affair of that country.

This is the assessment conveyed by India to the P5 envoys and Sri Lanka, government sources said here Friday.

India has ruled out any military intervention in the present situation in the Maldives and is impressing upon its international interlocutors that the foremost concern is to bring stability to the Maldives as any further chaos will endanger the island nation's economy which is heavily dependent on tourism.

In his talks with State Department officials in Washington early this week, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai also shared India's assessment of the situation in the Maldives with the US broadly agreeing with India's approach. On his way back to New Delhi, Mathai met the British foreign secretary in London and also discussed the situation in that country.

India also plans to update SAARC countries on the political churn in the Maldives and press for a democratic solution to the present impasse in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation comprising around 1,200 scattered islands. The UN Security Council, on which India is currently serving as a non-permanent member, will also discuss the situation in Maldives later Friday.