Chief of Defence Force Major General Abdullah Shamaal has stated that the MNDF will not allow the military of any country to develop a military base in the Maldives.
Shamaal made this statement regarding a question asked by a journalist about India’s plan to develop a port in Uthuru Thilafalhu.
Speaking at a press conference held at army HQ, the Chief of Defence Force said that the government has no plans to develop a military base in any part of the Maldives even on a temporary basis.
Shamaal said that however, the MNDF will seek assistance from other countries to improve the capacity of the army and that is not something new. “We get assistance from three areas. One area is training and the second one is resources. The last one is capacity building. We are not doing these things for the first time. It has been years that since we have started getting foreign assistance to develop infrastructure and to train the soldiers” said Shamal.
In addition he said that MNDF needs their own dockyard to repair coast guard vessels and that they face many challenges because they don’t have such facilities. “India has signaled that they will plan to assist us in this regard” said Shamal.
