Defence Minister, Mariya Ahmed Didi has said that even during the COVID-19 situation, 790 military officers have received various types of training.

Speaking on Rajje TV, the Defence Minister said that various efforts were made to improve the capabilities of the Maldivian military in the past two years of the Presidency of Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. And so, providing training opportunities to the officers is something that is given a special attention by the government and the training received by the military has gone up by 60 percent compared to 2017.

She said that training programs are currently ongoing as well at the military training centers with full capacity. And training opportunities have been provided from abroad as well.

Minister Mariya said that aside from the COVID-19 operations, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) has conducted 2045 operations in the past two years including the transportation of over 500 people via Sea Ambulance and attending about 700 incidents at sea.

The Defence Minister said that an area of about 700,000 miles of the Maldivian sea have been under surveillance under the current administration.