President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed visited Salisbury over the weekend prior to his return to the island nation yesterday, the Salisbury Journal newspaper has reported.
He was welcomed by UK Conservative Party MP John Glen and founder of the Friends of Maldives NGO, David Hardingham.
Salisbury was home to a group of Maldivian exiles for five years from 2003, and became the launch pad for their campaign for democracy, the newspaper reported.
Hardingham’s cottage in Friary Lane is now the Maldives’ Honorary Consulate.
Mr Glen was sent out to the island nation in 2007 and 2008 by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy to help the then-opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) draw up its manifesto.
