President Mohamed Nasheed and First Lady Laila Ali have today met with His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan. The meeting was held this morning at the "Maldives House" in SAARC Village.
The President and the King discussed ways of enhancing bilateral relations between the Maldives and Bhutan.
King Wangchuck congratulated President Nasheed for the "excellent, vibrant speech delivered" by the President at the inauguration ceremony yesterday.
He also noted that Maldives and Bhutan enjoyed excellent relations and expressed desire to further enhance these relations.
President Nasheed congratulated the King for his initiative to bring democratic reforms to Bhutan. He also congratulated Bhutan for the chairmanship of SAARC and expressed confidence that SAARC would move forward under Bhutan's chairmanship. He further expressed hope that the council of Ministers will be convened as soon as possible.
On the importance of making SAARC a more active association, the President said SAARC needed to focus more on trade and also on connectivity which in turn would enable greater trade between the member countries.
President also congratulated Bhutan for having the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) in Bhutan and also for having Bhutanese CEO for SDF.
The King noted that Bhutan too faced challenges in consolidating democracy and expressed lack of capacity in institution building.
The king also agreed with the President that more connectivity should be established among member countries and that member countries should be able to depend on each other more.
The President and First Lady Laila Ali attended a banquet dinner hosted in honour of visiting heads of states and governments and their spouses by the Bhutanese Prime Minister, yesterday.
