Former President Mohamed Nasheed met with the vice president of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Sunday.

The former President, via twitter on Sunday evening, announced that he had met with Lanka’s VP, less than a day after his call on President Maithripala Sirisena.

Noting that it was a “great honour and privilege” to meet with Ranil, Nasheed added that he has always found the VP’s “counsel to be valuable.”

Nasheed is one of the first leaders, former and current, to have met with both President Sirisena and VP Wickremesinghe, following their win in the elections in 2015.

Nasheed in Lanka

The former President has been in Sri Lanka since January 29, and is to leave to the United Kingdom on Monday.

During his visit, Nasheed met with senior members of his party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)- with the party even holding a National Council session there- as well as foreign diplomats.

In addition to Sri Lanka's president and VP, Nasheed also met with US Ambassador Atul Keshap, British Ambassador James Dauris, Australia's High Commisioner Bryce Hutchesson, Canada's High Commissioner Shelley Whiting, and the Ambassador of Germany, Jörn Rhode. 

While this is Nasheed's second trip to Lanka since being granted asylum- he visited the country in August 2016- Sri Lanka had said that it had "no concern over Nasheed's activities in Sri Lanka."

According to the Colombo Gazette, Lanka's cabinet spokesperson had said that Nasheed "was raising democratic issues and so it cannot be seen as an attempt to topple the Maldives Government."

A Maldives court had tried to arrest Nasheed then, even issuing a formal warrant for the arrest of Nasheed to coincide with his visit to Sri Lanka, but failed to arrest Nasheed due to Lanka's stance on the matter.