President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's letter to Mauritian Prime Minister addressing Maldives government's decision to shift its stance to support Mauritius at the United Nations (UN) vote has been leaked on social media.
President's Office Spokesperson Miuvaan Mohamed verified the authenticity of the letter, and said they were looking into how the document was leaked.
According to the leaked letter, President Solih said that the Maldives would be altering its stance concerning the United Nations General Assembly Resolution regarding the "Advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965."
The letter which leaked on social media, indicated that, as President Solih had previously said, the Maldives would cast a vote in favor of Mauritius in the upcoming United Nations vote on the issue of Chagos' sovereignty.
In the letter, President Solih said that he did not support Mauritius in the Chagos issue earlier due to the Mauritian government's objection to Maldives' July 2010 submission" the Commission on The Limits of The Continental Shelf (CLCS).
In the letter, President Solih assured that Maldives' change in position regarding Chagos is "entirely without prejudice to the legal position taken by Maldives" at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and the 2010 CLCS submission.
The letter did not contain any details regarding the Maldives-Mauritius boundary demarcation or its potential effects on the ITLOS decision. This aligns with the earlier statements made by the Bar Council as well.
The Bar Council was mandated with evaluating whether the government acted in accordance with the law regarding the boundary demarcation case. This evaluation involved acquiring all relevant documents, including a copy of the now leaked letter, to assess the government's actions and decisions related to the case.
Despite the leak of the letter, the government had previously declined to meet the demands of the political opposition to make it publicly available.
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