Do you think the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) deadline of January 1, 2006, will be met?
We are happy at the way SAARC has come along because we now have regular meetings. There is a forum for us to sit and talk, there is a sense of a common identity developing. There have been benefits from that. Now, for free trade, of course, they [SAARC leaders] signed an agreement in Islamabad [January 2004]. I believe not only is there scope for free trade, but a necessity to develop that. It’s hard for me to say at this point [if the SAFTA deadline will be met]. Not all the negotiations have moved at the same pace. For the Maldives, it’s very important that SAFTA be operationalised by the time-frame [set in Islamabad]. Turning to internal issues in the Maldives, are we going to see the formation of genuine, multiparty democracy in your country? Absolutely. The Government’s priority now, having introduced a multiparty system, is to ensure that we build the free institutions that are required to support a functioning, multiparty democracy. A revised electoral system that can support m
