President Muizzu departs to China on first-ever state visit

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu and First Lady Sajidha Ahmed have departed to China on Sunday night, for the first-ever state visit of the president.

The visit is undertaken at the invitation of the Chinese President Xi Jingping. The first couple is accompanied by a high-level delegation of the Maldivian government.

The President’s Office states Maldives and China will hold official talks and sign key agreements to enhance trade, professional development, and socioeconomic cooperation during this visit which they also said will pave the way for collaborations in technology and other areas between the two countries.

According to the Office, President Muizzu is also scheduled to attend the Invest Maldives Forum in Fuzhou, China and meet with senior Chinese business leaders to explore avenues for strengthening socioeconomic relations between the Maldives and China.

As his first official visit, President Muizzu first traveled to Türkiye on November 27^th at the invitation of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He then directly traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates to attend the Twenty-Eighth Session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28).

He arrived back in the Maldives after concluding the trip on December 3^rd.

Prior to this, Vice President Hussain Latheef had undertaken an official visit to China to attend the ‘China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation’ organized by the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA).