Washington, September 10: A top Obama administration official on Thursday said that occasionally terrorists try to make use of the Maldivian territory, and thus there is need for the US to help Maldives to monitor its territories.
“Maldives faces a number of challenges. First of all there are terrorists that come through the Maldives, transit through the Maldives,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said a day after US President Barack Obama issued a presidential determination to furnish defence articles and services to island nation.
Blake, who immediately before his current position, was the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, said the presidential determination has put in place a legal framework to help Maldives in this regard, although there is no military assistance to be announced yet to this small nation comprising of several tiny islands.
“There is a particular challenge in maintaining the ability to monitor what is going on in their seas. They also sit stride some one of the major sea lanes in the world. So it is very very important that they have the ability to monitor activity,” he said.
“Occasionally there are terrorists and others who try to make use of the Maldivian territory,” Blake said in response to a question on the need of presidential determination at the prestigious Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University after a speech on Obama administration’s South Asia policy.
“Maldives is a very moderate Muslim nation, which works very closely with the United States and others, so we have an interest in helping them in small ways to do what we can to help them address those challenges,” Blake said.
“So, the purpose of the statement that the President put out yesterday is just to provide the legal framework that allows us to provide this modest military assistance. We do not have any assistance to announce, but we have the framework now to make that happen,” Blake said.
–Agencies