THE MALDIVES PRESIDENT WELCOMES NEW U.S.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 COLOMBO 000936 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INSB, TREASURY FOR MALACHY NUGENT AND ATTICUS WELLER, EEB FOR JENNIFER PETERSON E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF PHUM PTER EAID MOPS ECON EFIN CE SUBJECT: THE MALDIVES PRESIDENT WELCOMES NEW U.S. AMBASSADOR WITH ASSISTANCE REQUESTS REF: COLOMBO 892 COLOMBO 00000936 001.3 OF 004 ¶1. (U) THIS IS AN ACTION REQUEST. DEPARTMENT SEE PARA 12. TREASURY SEE PARA 13. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: In his first meeting with Ambassador Butenis, the Maldives President Nasheed outlined an ambitious program of environmental and economic reform, business development, social-service improvements, and military and other international cooperation. The Maldivians insisted they did not want handouts. Rather, they were interested in technical assistance and help in finding free-market solutions to their problems. Post actively engages with the Maldives in a number of areas. But this engagement, while significant, meets neither the Maldivians' desire for greater cooperation and assistance, nor the U.S. vision of a robust and mutually beneficial relationship with a democratic Muslim state. Post will send septel a more detailed and comprehensive analysis of the specific assistance requests from the Maldivians and areas of potential cooperation. In the meantime, post has formed a Maldives task force headed by the DCM to compile this information. Post requests Department identify a point person and office to coordinate U.S. assistance and cooperation with the Maldives. END SUMMARY. THE PRESIDENT'S MANY PROMISES -------------- ¶3. (SBU) On October 1, Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis presented her credentials to President of the Republic of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed. In lieu of a series of previously scheduled individual meetings with a range of Maldivian officials following the credentialing ceremony, the president invited the Ambassador and her delegation to return later in the day for an expanded meeting with the president and key members of his cabinet. At the latter meeting, the president provided an overview of his government's goals and promises to the Maldivian people since it took office November 2008. First and most importantly was the promise to restore democracy, freedom of assembly, and a system of checks and balances between three branches of government following the 30-year authoritarian rule of former President Gayoom. The president believed the GOM had made good progress in this �0A;area but welcomed assistance to consolidate and deepen democracy. (NOTE: Members of the Maldives Opposition Movement, including the former ruling DRP party, traveled to Colombo earlier in the week to discuss with members of the diplomatic community their concerns regarding free assembly and freedom of the press under the new president, claiming that opposition rallies had been disrupted and the opposition was denied access to the government-controlled press. They said they had good access to the private press. Embassy has not seen evidence to substantiate these claims but will follow the situation closely. END NOTE.) ¶4. (SBU) President Nasheed also discussed the problem of climate change, which threatens to raise sea levels to the point of forcing the abandonment of many islands of the Maldives. (NOTE: The president recently spoke passionately on this issue to the UNGA, as well as at the UN Summit on Climate Change, and had been named a "hero of the environment" by Time Magazine. END NOTE.) He asked for U.S. assistance in many aspects of the climate issue, including developing a plan for carbon neutrality, strengthening environmental regulations, starting up green utility COLOMBO 00000936 002.3 OF 004 companies, and more. President Nasheed wanted to make the Maldives a show-piece of environmental awareness, experimentation, and decisive action. While they recognized that the Maldives going "carbon neutral" would have no real impact on the global environment, they hoped that their example would inspire others who had more and better resources to make the hard choices necessary to save the planet. (NOTE: A knowledgeable third-country diplomat recently told econoff that despite all the promises, he had seen no evidence that the Maldives had actually taken any action to reduce its carbon footprint. END NOTE.) ¶5. (SBU) The president outlined as well what he called his "five pledges" to the people of the Maldives: -- Cost of Living: A high budget deficit and bloated government bureaucracy were contributing to high costs. The president had a plan to reduce spending and the size of the government in line with IMF recommendations but requested U.S. help in convincing the IMF to be flexible by allowing the Maldives to reduce the number of government employees rather than reducing government salaries. The GOM also had plans to restructure its tax code to create goods and sales taxes, income taxes, and business profit taxes, and would appreciate U.S. technical assistance. (NOTE: The Maldives previously requested technical assistance on these issues. Post is coordinating with Washington on this request. END NOTE.) -- Build Low-Cost Housing: The Maldives had a plan to offer 50-year leases on premier real estate plots to developers willing to build ten low-cost houses per high-end plot. Thus far, a few developers had taken the offer, but many more low-income units needed to be built. The president requested help in locating additional such developers. He also requested assistance in establishing a western-style mortgage program for home-buyers. -- Reduce Drug Abuse: The Maldives had one of the world's worst drug-abuse problems with approximately 10 percent of the population classified as users (mostly heroin). The president requested U.S. assistance with prevention and rehabilitation programs. -- Introduce a Health Care Plan: The GOM intended to cover the entire population with a social insurance scheme by 2012. High deficits and low revenues made this difficult. -- Establish a Nationwide Transport System: The Maldives lacked a comprehensive transportation system linking its many islands. The GOM had found a private ferry company to manage routes to some of the islands and sought to expand the program, but there remained difficulties in attracting investment. ¶6. (SBU) Ambassador in general terms responded positively to the president's requests, noting that the U.S. would like to assist the Maldives as much as possible. She promised to discuss the president's requests with Washington. In response to her request for a single point of contact in the GOM with whom we could work, the president responded that the vice president, Dr. Mohamed Waheed -- who has already been in touch with A/S Blake regarding a number of specific assistance requests -- would serve in that role. On the question of coordinating requests and assistance amongst potential donor nations, the president noted that a donors' COLOMBO 00000936 003.3 OF 004 conference was planned for November. Ambassador also noted our commitment to increase the official U.S. presence in the Maldives and discussed options. (NOTE: Post has been in touch with SCA/EX on leasing office space in Male, which would provide a base of operations for an LES representative based in Male and for embassy officials when they traveled there from Colombo. We also are exploring the option of engaging a Maldivian LES person to work at the embassy. END NOTE.) OTHER MEETINGS -------------- ¶7. (SBU) In addition to the meeting with the president and his cabinet, the Ambassador also met separately with the vice president, who covered many of the same items raised at the president's meeting and provided further details. He also discussed the current political situation in Male, noting such things as the growing risk of Islamic extremism and the opposition the GOM faced for opening relations with Israel. In a meeting at the Ministry of Defense, DefMin Ameen Faisal said his two top concerns were violent religious extremism and maritime threats, such as Somali pirates. The Maldives was prepared to sign an information-sharing agreement and an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) with the U.S. He also reiterated the Maldives' interest in establishing a USN facility in the southernmost atoll. He thanked the Ambassador for U.S. security assistance and ongoing Joint Combined Education and Training (JCET). He confirmed media reports that the Maldives intended to contribute to UN peacekeeping operations and requested assistance in developing PKO capability (NOTE: The Maldives is not a Global Peace Operations -- GPOI -- recipient. END NOTE). The Ambassador expressed appreciation for excellent security cooperation and promised to follow up on the minister's requests. ¶8. (SBU) Ambassador hosted a lunch for representatives of civil society organizations, including the Raaje Foundation, focusing on the promotion of democracy and human rights; Transparency Maldives, which promotes good governance and works to eliminate corruption; Society for Women against Drugs, which provides intervention and after-care support to drug abusers; and the American Red Cross, which has been focused on post-tsunami recovery and formation of a Maldivian Red Crescent Society. The NGO representatives described their work, discussed areas for improvement, and requested assistance with developing fund-raising capacity, expanding democracy and good-governance programs, and otherwise increasing their contact and cooperation with the USG. THE WAY AHEAD AND ACTION REQUESTS -------------- ¶9. (SBU) The Maldives is a good news story: a Muslim country with a democratically elected government that is free-market oriented and pro-U.S. It faces a host of challenges, however, and is very eager to work with the U.S. and other western partners. The Maldivians insist they do not want handouts. Rather, they are interested in technical assistance and help in finding free-market solutions to their problems. ¶10. (SBU) Embassy actively engages with the Maldives in a number of areas, including: COLOMBO 00000936 004.3 OF 004 -- Support for an American Corner at the Maldivian National Library and a Maldives Virtual Presence Post (VPP); -- Positioning of a Public Affairs Specialist in Male in the near future; -- Robust Maldivian participation in International Visitor programs; -- Very active Maldivian military participation in International Military Education and Training (IMET) courses, seminars, expert exchanges, conferences, and U.S. service academy scholarships, as well as bilateral high-level visits; -- Regular visits by USN ships; -- Support (50K USD) for the drug abuse aftercare program; -- English Language Fellow regular visits to the Ministry of Education; and -- Training of Maldivian police at the FBI's National Academy. ¶11. (SBU) This engagement, while significant, meets neither the Maldivians' desire for greater cooperation and assistance, nor the U.S. vision of a robust and mutually beneficial relationship with a democratic Muslim state. Post will send septel a more detailed and comprehensive analysis of the specific assistance requests from the Maldivians and areas of potential cooperation. In the meantime, post has formed a Maldives task force headed by the DCM to compile this information. We have encouraged the Maldivians to coordinate better their interaction with the international community to void overlap and redundancy in assistance. They are planning a donors' conference in November, which we plan to attend. ¶12. (SBU) ACTION REQUEST FOR DEPARTMENT: Post requests Department identify a point person and office to coordinate U.S. assistance and cooperation with the Maldives. ¶13. (SBU) ACTION REQUEST FOR TREASURY: The Maldives President Nasheed strongly requested U.S. support for approval of an IMF stand-by agreement for the Maldives in the upcoming October 23 IMF board meeting. During the recent IMF staff mission, the IMF staff insisted that the Maldives meet key targets by October 15, in advance of a vote on the IMF program. The IMF seeks to impose stiff medicine in its program to control the Maldives' massive budget deficit and uncontrolled spending (see reftel). President Nasheed argued that while the Maldives would meet its other targets, the goal to cut drastically government salaries was politically unfeasible. Instead, the Maldives preferred to focus on a medium-term goal to reduce government employment by one third. In addition, the Maldives believed that the proposed IMF program was inadequate. According to President Nasheed, the IMF planned to disburse up to seven times the Maldives IMF quota ($86 million),but the Maldives needed 12 times its quota, or $147 million. (NOTE: The Maldives Monetary Authority officials told econoff several weeks ago that the proposed IMF package was $78 million at most. END NOTE.) Post is convinced that the Maldives is sincere in its intention to reform and, given the precarious state of the Maldivian economy, urges Washington agencies to support an IMF program in the October 23 meeting. If necessary, the IMF could monitor the Maldives' progress toward meeting IMF targets by disbursing the financial support in tranches, as the IMF has done in Sri Lanka. BUTENIS