India urges Commonwealth to fast-track Maldives' re-admission

India's external affairs minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has called for fast-tracking the Maldives' re-admission into the Commonwealth at the 19th Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting in London.

The former Maldivian government under Abdulla Yameen had withdrawn from the Commonwealth in 2016.

Current President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's govt in Male had applied for membership again and took approval from the cabinet a month after taking charge. He was sworn in November 2018.

Applying for membership of Commonwealth was one of the main priorities of the Solih govt in its 100-day agenda.

External Affairs Minister during the 19th Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting (CFAMM) also "noted that India is well on the path of fulfilling all the commitments made by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, at CHOGM 2018 much before the next CHOGM in 2020", a ministry of external affairs release said.

EAM also had bilateral meeting UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt during which the former thanked his counterpart for "British Government’s support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to build a global Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)."

He also met with Australian, Canadian & Bangladeshi Foreign Ministers.