The Indian Ministry of Defense has gifted two Sea Ambulances to the Maldives as part of the close cooperation between the two countries. The handover was undertaken under the Indian Grant Assistance Scheme, the Indian Defense Ministry stated. A total of 6.2 million Rufiyaa was allocated for the procurement of the sea ambulances, the ministry revealed.

The main objective of the project was to strengthen the healthcare delivery system in the Maldives, especially catering to inter-island travel of patients in case of emergency. The development came amid Indian Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar’s visit to the Maldives. Maldives’ Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid expressed gratitude towards India’s gesture and tweeted informing that the sea ambulances have been procured under the High Impact Community Development (HICDP) programme.

India and Maldives sign 3 MoUs amid Jaishankar’s visit

Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar, who is on a two-day visit to the Maldives from 18-19 January signed three agreements Wednesday, Maldives’ FM Abdulla Shahid shared on Twitter. Amid his fourth visit to the island nation as India’s Foreign Minister, Dr S Jaishanakar signed agreements in the fields of community empowerment, sports infrastructure, and higher education.

Furthermore, the Indian Foreign Minister engaged in discussing the full spectrum of India-Maldives’ “special bilateral partnership with a focus on development cooperation, capacity building and people to people ties,” Jaishankar tweeted.  

The four key highlights of the visit were agreements on Community development projects across Maldives; the Development of a sports complex in Gahdhoo; Academic collaboration between Maldives National University and Cochin University; in addition to the handover of the sea ambulances to Maldives’ Defence Force.