Minister Shahid Hold Virtual Meeting with USAID Administrator Samantha Power

On Thursday evening, Foreign Minister, Abdulla Shahid has a virtual meeting with the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ms. Samantha Power. She has served in various roles within the US Foreign Service and is currently the 19th Administrator of USAID.  
 
Both parties shared insight on the on-going Covid19 pandemic in the respective countries, and Minister Shahid thanked the Government of the United States for their continued assistance to the Maldives in various capacities. This included him commending on the US Government’s recent announcement to include Maldives among the first countries that would receive the extra stocks of COVID-19 vaccines from the US. 

 
Further discussions touched topics in the areas of protecting the environment, strengthening democratic governance and public finance management in the Maldives.  
 
Maldives has been recipient of over USD 20 million in assistance from the Government of the United States since 2001. USD 9.1 million of it was post the onset of the pandemic in assisting the COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts. With this in mind, Minister Shahid noted that the United States have proven to be a close and reliable friend, especially at times of critical need.