VZCZCXRO3946
OO RUEHIK
DE RUEHLM #0936/01 2800638
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 070638Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0602
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 7205
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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 
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