The Maldivian passport has been named as the most powerful passport in the South Asian Association for Regional Coorperation (SAARC) this year.

The Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. Maldives was placed as the most powerful passport in the SAARC region this year, which marks the second consecutive year that the country is placed at the top.

With the Maldivian passport, you can now travel to 85 destinations without a prior visa.

The second most powerful passport in the SAARC region was named as the Indian passport with which you can travel to 58 destinations without a prior visa, while Sri Lanka came in third with 42 such destinations.

The Nepalese and Afghanistan passports were ranked lowest in SAARC. Nepalese passport ranked in at seventh while Afghanistan was at eighth place among all eight countries in the SAARC region.

While the Maldivian passport was ranked top in the SAARC region, it came at the 61st position on the global ranking.

The most powerful passport in the world was named as the Japanese passport, while Singapore came in at second place.