President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has underlined the priority given by the government to ensure Maldives is safe from terrorism and violent extremism.
The President made the statement at the opening of the first exercises under new national terrorism response plan in partnership with the government of UK. The President’s Office, in partnership with the Government of the United Kingdom, held its first exercise testing the National Terrorism Response Plan (NTRP) on December 13.
Delivering the opening remarks, the President outlined the high priority the government places on keeping the Maldives safe from terrorism and violent extremism, while praising the NTRP as the first comprehensive multi-agency document that will help the country work towards this end.
Meanwhile, High Commissioner of the UK, Caron Rohsler, expressed her appreciation towards the willingness of government of the Maldives to collaborate on anti-terrorism efforts, and its openness towards positive engaging on other issues of mutual interest, such as climate change.
The NTRP describes how the different agencies responsible for the Maldives’ national security will coordinate their efforts to help the country respond to and recover from a terrorist incident. The aim of the first tabletop exercises were to test protocols and provisions, and focused on the strategic level response to a terrorist incident. Participants included cabinet ministers, members of the National Security Council, heads of agencies and members of our national security services.
After completion of this exercise the remainder of the week will be spent on conducting working sessions for other levels of response coordination in the NTRP. These sessions are also designed to enhance stakeholder collaboration with respect to meeting threats, and to ensure that the Maldives remains a safe country.