COLOMBO Maldivian Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Mohamed Ameen met his Sri Lankan counterpart Nimal Siripala de Silva in Colombo on Tuesday, and said on social media platform ‘X’, that Sri Lanka has agreed to help the Maldives with medical evacuation
Maldivian Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Mohamed Ameen met his Sri Lankan counterpart Nimal Siripala de Silva in Colombo on Tuesday, and said on social media platform ‘X’, that Sri Lanka has agreed to help the Maldives with medical evacuation. “We have specifically agreed upon creating a framework for immediate approval process between Maldives and Sri Lanka on urgent requirements, specifically on med-evac flights,” Mr. Ameen said in his post.
They Maldives will use their air ambulances, this is to help keep this channel open and easy for any emergency medical treatment that Maldivians might need in Sri Lanka,” Mr. de Silva told The Hindu Wednesday morning. Sri Lanka and India are among the Maldives’s closest neighbours, and Maldivians have always had close ties in Colombo, a city they frequent.
The development comes amid President Mohamed Muizzu’s apparent efforts to expand and diversify the island nation’s partnerships in medical evacuation. In December, he announced setting up an air ambulance service beginning March 2024, and said it could help patients travel as far as Thailand. The need for prompt medical evacuation came into sharp focus earlier in January, when a Maldivian teenager died, reportedly owing to a delay in evacuation for emergency treatment.
Hindu
