Maldives Minister Responds To Remarks Against India: "Won't Get Repeated…"

In an exclusive interview to ANI on May 09, Maldivian Foreign Minister stated that stand of Maldivian Government on derogatory remarks against India is that it shouldn't have been done. Further he assured that proper action is being taken regarding the same so that such things don't get repeated. He said, "If you have seen as you said, we have said that it's not the stand of the government or we believe that it shouldn't have been done. We are taking proper action to make sure that this doesn't get repeated. There has been a misunderstanding, in social media. The governments of Maldives and India understand what has happened and we have passed that stage now." On Indian tourist figures declining in Maldives, Foreign Minister of Maldives, Moosa Zameer said, "I think the Minister of Tourism has clearly said that he would like to welcome and I like myself to welcome all Indians who would like to travel to Maldives...But I think in the long term once we move forward because if you're seen in the last eight months, in Maldives and India we are going through election cycles. So I think we will move beyond that phase pretty soon and we would like all Indian tourists to continue to come. And if you look at the trajectory of what has happened. If you go back about 10 years ago, there continued to be a very important source market and then during COVID Indian travelers actually came into all this in high numbers. And then that trend continued...In the past couple of months, we have had about a 16 to 17% increase and then of course there has been a decrease in Indian markets but I'm confident that it will pick up in the near future."