LONDON, England — Her Excellency Dr Farah Faizal, Ambassador-designate of Maldives to the United Kingdom, paid a courtesy call on His Excellency Ellison Greenslade, High Commissioner of Bahamas of The Bahamas to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, on Thursday, July 4, 2019, at The Bahamas High Commission, 10 Chesterfield Street, Mayfair.
The two diplomats “discussed areas of mutual interest pertaining to Small Island Developing States, as well as the Maldives re-joining the Commonwealth,” according to information posted on the Maldives Facebook page.
According to Wikipedia, the Republic of Maldives “is a country in South Asia, located in the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean” that “lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India.”
“From the mid-16th-century, the region came under the increasing influence of European colonial powers, with the Maldives becoming a British protectorate in 1887,”Wikipedia notes. “Independence from the United Kingdom was granted in 1965 and a presidential republic was established in 1968 with an elected People’s Majlis. The ensuing decades have been characterised by political instability, efforts at democratic reform, and environmental challenges posed by climate change.”
The Maldives is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). It is also a member of the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Non Aligned Movement. The World Bank classifies the Maldives as having an upper middle income economy.
Fishing has historically been the dominant economic activity, and remains the largest sector by far, followed by the rapidly growing tourism industry. Maldives is rated “high” on the Human Development Index, with its per capita income significantly higher than other SAARC nations.
“The Maldives was a Commonwealth republic from July 1982 until its withdrawal from the Commonwealth in October 2016 in protest of international criticism of its records in relation to corruption and human rights,” according to Wikipedia.
