‘Maldives Has Moved From Denial To Dealing With Religious Extremism’

NEW DELHI: Faris Maumoon, Executive Council Member of the Maldives Reform Movement (MRM) in conversation with StratNewsGlobal Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi. The discussion ranges from how and why the MRM headed by former President Maumoon Gayoom split with ex-President Yameen, how India is back as the primary strategic partner, what is China’s role in trade and development and how religious extremism is being handled in a country that was once reported to supply the most fundamentalists per capita to the ‘Islamic State’ and other terror groups

Maumoon Gayoom was the President of Maldives from 1978-2008. His half-brother Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom won the 2013 Presidential polls which saw a distinct shift in policy away from New Delhi towards Beijing. The brothers though split in 2016 and ex-President Gayoom and family members, including his son Faris Maumoon, were jailed but subsequently released. Now, ex-President Yameen is in jail, ex-President Gayoom is with the current government headed by President Ibrahim Solih.