The Maldives is proud to be a member state of the United Nations and is fully committed to the multilateral order heralded by the 1945 San Francisco Conference. The President expressed these sentiments at the High Level Meeting to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, where he joined his peers to deliver a statement celebrating this milestone year for the globe’s most important body. The event was held virtually in light of the ongoing pandemic.

The event almost exactly coincides with the Maldives’ 55th Anniversary as a member state of the United Nations. The United Nations Security Council voted to recommend our membership to the General Assembly, through UNSC Resolution 212, on September 20, 1965; the General Assembly subsequently voted on our admission, confirming our membership, less than two months after our independence.

As the President expressed in his statement, the Maldives uses UN platforms to engage with our international partners on every conceivable issue, from climate change to counter-terrorism, to trade and regional institutionalism. We align our actions with the principles and values enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The President emphasised that those values will be especially important to tackle one of the greatest challenges to ever confront the post-war global order: Covid-19.

Stressing that the immediate task confronting the global community is recovering from the disease’s impacts, the President expressed that vulnerable countries such as the Maldives will need international assistance to revive our economies and restore our major industries — especially our vital tourism industry — to full strength. In turn, he expressed, the Maldives is prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the global community to confront this and other challenges, in the spirit of multilateralism, as a proud member of the United Nations.