New Delhi: Maldives last week terminated its agreement with the GMR-led consortium to run the Male international airport after it unsuccessfully waited 45 days for an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a special envoy of President Mohammed Waheed to convey a letter explaining why the deal was unsustainable, a senior official from the President's office told ET.
The unilateral termination of the deal is at the centre of a diplomatic row between India and the neighbouring archipelago. "We wanted to explain to the Prime Minister the anger among the people of this country, the pressure the government was under and how ruinous this deal was for Maldives. We wanted to seek his intervention in perhaps convincing GMR to renegotiate. But we received no response for a month and a half.
Time takes a toll on everyone. And then we had no option but to terminate the deal," Masood Imad, press secretary to the President, told ET, speaking on telephone from Male. India's external affairs ministry confirmed receiving a request, but denied that no response was made. "Yes we did receive this request. We responded saying we will receive him at an appropriate level," an external affairs ministry spokesperson said.
06/12/12 Sruthijith KK/Economic Times
