The government has decided to cancel a hydrography agreement signed with India by the previous administration.
At a press conference today, President's Office Undersecretary Mohamed Firuzul revealed that the government decided not to renew the agreement when it expires on June 7, 2024.
The agreement - which was made to study the country's reefs and lagoons and to draw charts - requires notice of termination to be provided six months before it expires. The Indian government has now been informed that the Maldives does not wish to renew the agreement, Firuzul said.
The main reason for not renewing the hydrography agreement was to ensure that "only Maldivians" would know information about Maldivian waters, which has traditionally been the case, Firuzul said.
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu made the decision after deliberations at the cabinet, he said. The government also decided to improve the capacity of the Maldivian military in the field of hydrography, he added. The decision to assign a budget for the purpose was announced today.
Under the hydrography agreement, India has the right to sell charts based on data collected by the survey to foreign parties, according to information revealed by the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) in November 2021.
"I was troubled when the MNDF noted in their presentation that the Maldivian state earns money from that work. Why is it being done? Has a policy been made of earning an income from selling strategic information," then-Guraidhoo MP Ghassan Maumoon, now the Defense Minister, said at the time, expressing concern over the agreement.
