Maldives STELCO team in Pakistan

A delegation from the Maldives state-owned electricity company is visiting Pakistan on a fact-finding mission, reports said Monday, in another sign of growing cooperation between the two countries.

The four-member STELCO team met the chair of the Water and Power Development Authority in Lahore, Muzammil Hussain, who said Pakistan was ready to help the Maldives.

Pakistan, a nation of more than 200 million, has been grappling with an energy crisis for years. Its cities continue to experience blackouts, despite China injecting billions to fire up mega-projects in the power sector as part of an ‘economic corridor’ running the length of Pakistan.

“We, fortunately, have a pool of knowledge, expertise and training facilities with us and STELCO can make benefit from it,” Hussain was reported as saying. “WAPDA is ready to fully support Maldives in development of its infrastructure in power sector.”

The Maldives, which has also benefited from China’s largesse, has been inching closer to Pakistan even as relations with India dip.

Earlier this year Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa went to the Maldives on his first official visit.

Improving military ties and broadening joint efforts to combat terrorism were discussed during his meeting with the Maldives defence minister.

“Discussions also took place about sending Pakistani military doctors to the Maldivian military hospital Senahiya and conducting joint patrols of the Maldives’ exclusive economic zone,” the ministry said, setting alarm bells off in India.