 Your Excellency Ibrahim Muhammad Soli, President of the Republic of Maldives, Prime Minister Srinarendra Modiji, Ministers, distinguished guests, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to today's ceremony where four documents will be exchanged. First we have the agreement on the facilitation of visa arrangements. This will be exchanged on the Republic of Maldives side by His Excellency Abdullah Shahid, Minister of Foreign Affairs and on the Indian side by Srimati Susma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs. Number two, Memorandum of Understanding on Cultural Cooperation. This will be exchanged on the Republic of Maldives side by His Excellency Abdullah Shahid, Minister of Foreign Affairs and on the Indian side by Sri Arun Goyal, Secretary of the Ministry of Culture. The next one is a Memorandum of Understanding for Establishing Mutual Cooperation to Improve the Ecosystem for Agri-Business. This will be exchanged on the Republic of Maldives side by His Excellency Ustad Fayaz Ismail, Minister of Economic Development and on the Indian side by Sri Akhilesh Mishra, Ambassador of India to the Republic of Maldives. And finally, a joint declaration of intent on cooperation in the field of information and communications technology and electronics. This will be exchanged on the Republic of Maldives side by His Excellency Muhammad Aslam, Minister of National Planning and Infrastructure and on the Indian side by Sri Akhilesh Mishra, Ambassador of India to the Republic of Maldives. Excellencies, this concludes the exchange of agreement ceremony. I now request the spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry to conduct the proceedings. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you all to this press statement event. To begin the proceedings, may I request the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi to deliver his statement to the press. Your Excellency, Rastapati Sholih, Maldives-e-ay-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e Your Excellency, Srimati Sholih, and your Excellencies from the East Bundle, I am pleased to welcome you all to India. Once again, I would like to congratulate you once again on the Republic of Maldives. Not only for Maldives, but for the entire world, your struggle and your success are the source of inspiration. In the last few months, it was a matter of great respect for India, not just for me. For the first time in a month, you have chosen India for your first foreign trip. This is a matter of great respect and pride for us. The Republic of Maldives has always brought a lot of inspiration. Today, people of both countries are connected to each other through their institutions and development. With your trip, there will be a new beginning in the history of these relations. Friends, Srimati Sholih and I have had a very successful conversation with a lot of friends and friends. In the midst of the two countries, we have brought together the strong and powerful relations and the great importance of our development. Excellency, I am very proud of the vision of your government's people-centric development. We, as a group of friends and neighbors, are in charge of the success of Maldives. In order to change the lives of the people of Maldives, we have to give the important resources of your government. And in Maldives, the human face of development is always with you. I am happy that as a representative of this community, the budget support, currency swap and financial lines of credit in the form of 1.4 billion US dollars will help Maldives. In order to make connectivity better between the two countries, India will be in good hands. With better connectivity, goods and services, information, thoughts, culture and people's resources will be increased. Health, human resource development, infrastructure, agriculture, capacity building, ICT, and tourism, I have given confidence to make our destiny and to make it strong. In the next five years, we have also decided to give 1,000 seats to the citizens of Maldives. We are a special group of citizens of Maldives. Therefore, today we welcome you with a new vision. We want to see our foreign relations and foreign trade growing. In Maldives, in different areas, I welcome big opportunities for Indian companies. These are available on the market for both countries. In Maldives, we give answers to questions and answers. And based on the rules, we give a welcome message to Indian employees. President, India is proud that Maldives, our friends and neighbors, have established an example of becoming a country with the help of the LDC. And Maldives is the source of sustainable development and climate change challenges. Maldives will be important in the development of these challenges and in the sustainable development of the community. And therefore, we are happy to have an opportunity to increase cooperation between India and Maldives. Excellency, India welcomes your decision to join again in the Commonwealth. We will support it with our strength. We welcome you to the Indian Ocean Dream Association, IORA family. President Soli and I agree that we need to make our co-workers a better place to keep peace and security in the Indian Ocean. Both countries are connected to each other. For the sake of this region, we are committed to keeping peace and security against each other's worries and concerns. We will not allow any other country to benefit from the loss of one another. India and Maldives are both part of the development and stability of our region. I would like to work together with President Soli for the sake of the future of Maldives. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Now it is my pleasure to invite the President of the Republic of Maldives, his Excellency, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammad Soli, to deliver his statement. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It is a pleasure to be here on my first state visit to India. As many of you may know, this is my first visit abroad since SUM in office on 17th November 2018. I would like to thank Prime Minister Modi for having invited me and my delegation to this beautiful country, which remains close to the hearts of so many Maldivians. I also thank the people of the people and the government of India for the warm hospitality extended to me and my delegation during this visit. This demonstrates the close and fraternal ties that exist between the Maldives and India, our government and people. During my visit, I had the honor of meeting senior leaders in the Indian government, including the President of India, Mr. Ramnath Kovind, Vice President of India, Sri Venkaya Nidu and External Affairs Minister Srimati Sushma Swaraj. I had also extensive discussions with Prime Minister Modi where we discussed ways of further enhancing the traditionally strong and friendly relations between India and the Maldives and also reformed our mutual commitment to democracy, development and peaceful coexistence. During my visit, we also signed a series of agreements that will pave the way for greater cooperation between our two countries in the area of health, commerce, education, defense and cultural exchanges between our two countries. An important aspect of our discussions was our mutual aspiration and needs for regional stability and also agreed to strengthen maritime security in the Indian Ocean region through coordinate patrolling and aerial surveillance, exchange of information including cooperation in the areas of training and capacity building. During my discussions with Prime Minister Modi, I reiterated the Maldives support for India's candidature for permanent membership of an expanded and reformed UN Security Council and shall also support India's candidature for non-permanent seat for the year 2020-21. On behalf of Maldian people, I have also invited both President Covent and Prime Minister Modi to officially visit the Maldives next year and for which they both very graciously accepted. Before concluding, may I say thank you once again for the opportunity to be in this beautiful country of yours. May the Almighty bless our two countries with growth, prosperity and harmony. Thank you very much. Thank you, Excellency. This concludes the press statement ceremony. Thank you all for joining.