Law crucial to fortify state secrets: Ghassan

A confidentiality act to safeguard government secrets is a necessity, said Minister of Defense Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon on Monday.

Ghassan was summoned to the parliament on Monday to acquire updates on a case involving Indian soldiers boarding three local fishing vessels while they operated near the country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

During the extra time allocated to question the cabinet minister, parliament MPs questioned about the military drones recently acquired and commissioned under MNDF's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) service.

On March 15th, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu officially launched the MNDF Air Corps and UAV services. Maldives government had bought some of the drones with others issued under a Turkey grant.

Kelaa MP questioned why the goverment publicized acquisition of the military drones, to which the minister said the state's military secrets should be kept confidential.

"Truthfully, to disclose certain information to the public through the parliament, legislation to protect state secrets is necessary," Ghassan said.

The minister explained a confidendiality act would classify government's secrets to different levels or categories; based on the degree of sensitiveness.

An act to protect state secrets would benefit the government to disclose its policies to the parliament, Ghassan said while confirming this practice would eliminate the possibility of state secrets being used for political propaganda.

"Through this legislation, disclosure of sensitive information would be a criminal offense while its preservation would be assigned to relevant law enforcement authorities. We already discussed the same with parliament's 241 committee as well," Ghassan added.

The minister said a system categorizing state secrets would enhance dissemination of confidential information to the parliament.

"That is to ensure none of these sensitive information are exploited for political motives. The Maldivian state belongs to all Maldivians," the minister added.

Although the state publicly reported the drones' arrival and their inclusion in MNDF, the exact number of these vehicles were not publicly disclosed.

Ghassan said he has no objection to clarify the number of drones at a discreet meeting of the 241 Committee.