By Aweye Teddy Onam
South Sudan has formally established diplomatic relations with Maldives in a deal signed Thursday, by senior officials of the two countries.
Permanent representative of South Sudan to the United Nations, Akuei Bona Malwal and counterpart, Thilmeeza Hussein of Maldives, signed the deal.
According to Thilmeeza, South Sudan is the 185th country to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Maldives.
Maldives minister of foreign affairs, Abdulla Shahid a Twitter handle seen by No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper on Friday, acknowledged the deal as “an important step.”
The minister noted that the deal increases engagement of Maldives with neighbors, as it shares several common interests and concerns with many African nations.
Maldives is about 750 kilometers away from the Asian continent mainland and it lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India.
However, it is unclear what interest does South Sudan have in the Asian country.
Efforts to reach Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Deng Dau Deng for comment including officials at the Ministry were unsuccessful by the time of publication.
But according to President of Maldives Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, both countries have common interest to establish both bilateral and multilateral relationships.
“Maldives and South Sudan share common interests and concerns being comparatively small nations in the international arena”, said Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the president of Maldives.
“A path has been paved for increasing both bilateral and multilateral cooperation to achieve common goals in areas of mutual interests,” reads a part of Ibrahim’s message.