The Indian government had informed that Indian Coast Guard members entered Maldivian waters and boarded Maldivian vessels due to "miscommunication", Defence Minister Ghassan Maumoon told the Parliament today.
Responding to a question from Hulhumale' MP Ali Niyaz, the Defence Minister said the Maldives government accepts the explanation from India as it is an "official explanation given by a friendly country."
Indian officials at the policymaking level gave the same explanation to Chief of Defence Force Brigadier General Abdul Raheem Abdul Latheef during his visit to India at the time of the incident, Ghassan added.
“I strongly believe [it happened] because of a miscommunication, because that was the official response from a friendly country,” he said.
Ghassan also provided details of the arrangements for communication between Maldives and India on military matters. One of the ways India can communicate with Maldives on military matters is through the Maldives Defense Advisor based in India and the Indian Defense Advisor based in Maldives, he noted.
The Maldives government confirmed the details surrounding the incident of boarding the vessels through this channel, he added.
"We have our Defense Advisor, a Brigadier General, in India. And an Indian Defense Advisor is here in the Maldives. And a Maldives Coast Guard Liaison officer is based at the Indian Navy Fusion Centre, which is located in Gurgaon," Ghassan said.
The minister said the most important thing that can be done to prevent such incidents is to increase the resources to monitor the Maldivian waters and the government was working towards that goal.
Refuses to blame India, says Maldives must increase resources
In response to a question from Henveiru Hulhangu MP Hassan Latheef, the Defence Minister blamed the Maldives' lack of capacity to monitor territorial waters as the reason for Indian troops to board Maldivian fishing vessels.
The Maldives must increase resources and improve capability and must assure other countries that the Maldives maritime area will be properly managed, Ghassan said.
“One of the main reasons for such incidents, I think, is the vastness of the Maldivian territorial waters and the lack of modern facilities in the Maldivian state to manage this sea area in the most ideal manner,” he said.
Indian Coast Guard members on board a Maldivian fishing vessel. -- Photo: Bodu Kanneli Masveringe Union
Although details of how members of the Indian Coast Guard mistreated the crew of the Maldivian fishing vessels were provided in Parliament today, the minister declined to condemn the act as unlawful.
But he indirectly expressed concern that the arrangements established to coordinate the troops of the two countries during such operations had not been used.
