CJCSC General Sahir Shamshad Mirza Holds Key Defence Talks in Maldives Azad News HD

 

Introduction and Context

In a significant step for regional defence diplomacy, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, serving as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) of Pakistan, undertook an official visit to the Republic of the Maldives this week. The visit underscores the growing strategic importance both nations attach to bilateral defence and security cooperation, set against a rapidly evolving regional security environment. The talks reinforced shared commitments, explored avenues for deeper engagement, and conveyed mutual esteem between the two countries’ civil and military leaderships. According to reports, the two sides “held discussions on the evolving global and regional security environment and issues of mutual interest, including bilateral defence and security cooperation.”

The visit comes at a time when small island states like the Maldives are increasingly conscious of maritime security, counter-terrorism, and the wider strategic currents in the Indian Ocean region. For Pakistan, the engagement with the Maldives represents yet another strand of its diplomatic and defence outreach in the Indian Ocean littoral beyond the immediate South Asian land mass. The meeting also reflects the strong tradition of defence ties between Pakistan and the Maldives, where Pakistan’s armed forces have for decades provided training, capacity-building and professional exchanges. 

The Visit: Key Meetings, Symbolism and Protocol

Upon arrival in the Maldives, General Mirza was accorded full military honours, marking the ceremonious nature of the visit and the respect accorded to him by the host nation. As reported, “upon arrival at MNDF Headquarters, a smartly turned-out contingent presented a Guard of Honour to CJCSC.” 

During his stay in the Maldives, General Mirza called on His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, President of the Maldives, as well as His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon, Defence Minister, and Major General Ibrahim Hilmy, Chief of Defence Force of the Maldives. These meetings reflect the multi-level nature of the engagement: civil leadership, defence ministry, and military command. 

The discussions covered the evolving regional security environment, bilateral defence and security cooperation, and military-to-military engagement enhancement. The Maldives side lauded the professionalism of the Pakistan Armed Forces and recognised their sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. 

Strategic Rationale for Pakistan-Maldives Defence Engagement

There are several strategic rationales underpinning Pakistan’s outreach to the Maldives in the defence and security realm.

1. Maritime Security and Indian Ocean Littoral
   The Maldives occupies a vital maritime position in the Indian Ocean, and as such maritime security, piracy, illegal trafficking, maritime domain awareness, and resilience to external coercion are key concerns. For Pakistan, whose own maritime interests via the Arabian Sea and its naval assets are significant, cooperation with island states like the Maldives strengthens its presence and influence in the broader Indian Ocean region.

2. Capacity-Building and Professional Military Exchange
   Pakistan’s armed forces have a long history of providing training and professional development for defence forces of friendly nations. The Maldives, recognising Pakistan’s professionalism and counter-terrorism experience, regards continued cooperation as beneficial for its own defence capability. The recent visit again reaffirms this dynamic. For instance, the Maldives civil-military leadership “lauded the professionalism of the Pakistan Armed Forces and acknowledged their sacrifices in the fight against terrorism.” 

3. Diplomatic Signalling and Strategic Balance
   Visits of senior military leadership carry diplomatic signalling. For Pakistan, strengthening ties with the Maldives helps consolidate its strategic outreach into the Indian Ocean region, beyond traditional land-based South Asian geography. It also demonstrates to regional actors that Pakistan seeks to diversify its partnerships among smaller states. For the Maldives, engagement with Pakistan highlights its ability to seek defence cooperation beyond the major powers, thereby reinforcing its sovereignty and options.

4. Counter-terrorism and Non-traditional Security Threats
   Given the increasing salience of non-traditional security threats — maritime terrorism, radicalisation, trafficking, natural-disaster response — the defence cooperation framework offers means to share expertise, conduct training exercises, disaster-response drills, and humanitarian assistance operations that enhance both nations’ resilience.

Highlights and Outcomes of the Visit

From available reports, certain clear highlights and outcomes of the visit can be identified:

• The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening the Pakistan–Maldives defence partnership, indicating an intention to deepen military-to-military links, training, joint exercises and possibly maritime domain cooperation. 

• The Maldives acknowledged Pakistan’s possible role in assisting its defence capacity, especially in maritime and security domains.

• Both parties discussed the global and regional security environment, recognising shared challenges and the importance of coordinated approaches.

• The ceremony of Guard of Honour and other protocol elements signalled respect and the high-level nature of the engagement.

• Pakistan’s outreach contributes to its foreign-policy objectives: broadening defence diplomacy and generating goodwill with friendly states in the Indian Ocean region.

Implications for Regional Security Dynamics

The visit carries implications for broader regional security dynamics, especially in the Indian Ocean, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific context.

• Strengthening Small-State Defence Diplomacy: The Maldives, as a small island state, benefits from diversifying its defence partnerships. Engagement with Pakistan complements other partnerships (for example with India, China, etc.) and helps ensure balanced relations, thereby enhancing its strategic autonomy.

• Enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA): Cooperation could lead to improved maritime surveillance, intelligence sharing, joint patrolling or logistics support, which in turn heightens regional maritime security. Given the Maldives’ extensive Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and Pakistan’s growing naval capabilities, mutually reinforcing cooperation in MDA is plausible.

• Counter-terrorism and Regional Stability: Pakistan’s expertise in counter-terrorism has been widely acknowledged. By supporting the Maldives in capacity-building, Pakistani defence cooperation can help the Maldives strengthen its internal security, thereby contributing to regional stability in the Indian Ocean littoral and adjacent waters.

• Geopolitical Signalling: As major actors increasingly vie for influence in the Indian Ocean region, the engagement between Pakistan and the Maldives can be viewed as part of a broader balancing act by smaller states and regional powers alike. It signals that the Maldives is willing to engage with multiple defence partners, and Pakistan is actively pursuing diversified defence diplomacy.

Challenges and Considerations

While the visit signals strong intent, certain challenges and considerations must be borne in mind.

• Resource Constraints: For small states like the Maldives, budgetary and logistical constraints often limit the extent of defence cooperation. Pakistan too must ensure that its defence-diplomacy outreach is sustainable and aligned with its overall strategic posture.

• Operationalising Cooperation: Moving from declaration of intent to concrete programmes—training courses, joint exercises, maritime patrols, intelligence-sharing agreements—requires detailed planning, funding, timelines, and mutual trust.

• Regional Sensitivities: Defence cooperation in the Indian Ocean region is sensitive to the interests of larger major powers and regional neighbours. The Maldives and Pakistan must ensure that their cooperation does not provoke unintended strategic friction or overlapping of interests with other key players in the region.

• Institutionalisation: To ensure longevity beyond a single visit or declaration, the cooperation must be institutionalised via memoranda of understanding (MoUs), joint working groups, regular annual schedules of exercises, and review mechanisms.

Pakistan’s Defence Diplomacy: A Broader View
This visit should also be viewed in the context of Pakistan’s broader defence-diplomacy strategy. Pakistan has for decades leveraged its armed forces’ capabilities not only for national defence but also for regional engagement, training of officers from allied and friendly countries, participation in United Nations peace-keeping operations, and hosting multi-national exercises such as the biennial naval exercise Exercise AMAN. 

By engaging with the Maldives, Pakistan continues this pattern of outreach beyond immediate neighbours, enhancing its profile in maritime security, island-state cooperation, and Indian Ocean strategic dynamics. Such outreach also complements Pakistan’s desire to be seen as a contributor to regional stability, rather than only a regional actor focused on its immediate land-based security concerns.

The Maldives Perspective: Why This Matters
From the Maldives’ side, cooperation with Pakistan holds distinct advantages.

• Professional Military Training: The Maldives Defence Forces (MDF) can benefit from Pakistan’s expertise in professional military education, counter-terrorism operations, logistics, maritime patrol operations and island-state defence planning.

• Maritime and Island-State Defence Considerations: As an archipelagic nation, the Maldives faces unique defence and security challenges: vast maritime zones, littoral sovereignty, external maritime threats, climate-related disaster risks, and the need to maintain a credible maritime security posture. Cooperation with Pakistan can provide additional capacity and deterrence.

• Diversified Defence Partnerships: In a region where larger powers increasingly exert influence, the Maldives’ ability to engage with multiple defence partners (including Pakistan) helps preserve its strategic autonomy and diplomatic flexibility.

• Regional Connectivity and Diplomacy: By deepening defence ties with Pakistan, the Maldives not only strengthens bilateral relations but also positions itself in broader Indo-Pacific maritime networks, potentially gaining access to third-party training, logistics, and maritime-domain initiatives.

Potential Areas of Future Cooperation
While the visit reaffirmed general commitment, it also opens the door to specific future cooperation areas. Some of the plausible areas include:

• Joint Maritime Exercises: Pakistan and the Maldives could develop joint naval or coast-guard exercises focused on littoral defence, maritime interdiction, search-and-rescue, and anti-trafficking operations in the Indian Ocean region.

• Training and Education Exchanges: The Maldives can send its defence officers for training and staff courses in Pakistan’s military institutions; Pakistan could host lectures, workshops, or seminars for Maldives’ officers on counter-terrorism, maritime security, and island-defence strategies.

• Logistics and Base Support Arrangements: Although the Maldives is small, discussions could be held on logistic-support frameworks, port access, shore-based facilities, or maritime fuel-and-repairs support, enhancing the operational reach of both nations’ maritime forces.

• Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA): Cooperation in maritime surveillance, radar sharing, satellite-based monitoring, joint patrols or use of unmanned systems could enhance the Maldives’ situational awareness of its maritime zones and help Pakistan broaden its Indian-Ocean footprint.

• Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief (HADR): Given the Maldives’ vulnerability to climate-related disasters (tsunamis, sea-level rise, storms), Pakistan’s experience in disaster-response operations can be a resource. Joint drills in HADR operations could build capacity.

• Counter-terrorism and Internal Security Linkages: Pakistani expertise in counter-terrorism could assist the Maldives in strengthening its internal security apparatus, border management, intelligence cooperation, and maritime-terrorism readiness.

Corroborating Historical and Diplomatic Dimensions
The Pakistan–Maldives defence relationship has historical roots. According to available sources, Pakistan has provided training and defence support to the Maldives for decades. The Wikipedia article on “Maldives–Pakistan relations” mentions security relations and Pakistan’s role in training and defence cooperation.

Thus, this visit by General Mirza builds upon a prior foundation and is less an entirely new initiative than a reaffirmation and deepening of existing ties. It sends the message that Pakistan regards the Maldives as a strategic partner worthy of high-level military attention, and that the Maldives values Pakistan’s professionalism.

Symbolic and Substantive Elements of the Visit
Symbolically, the high-level nature of the visit — led by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee — elevates the bilateral defence relationship. The ceremonial guard of honour, meetings with the President and Defence Minister of the Maldives, and public statements of commitment highlight the symbolic weight.

Substantively, the discussions around mutual interest, military-to-military engagements, and defence cooperation point to real operational intentions. While publicly detailed agreements (MoUs, timelines) may not yet have been announced, the framework is set for deeper cooperation.

Regional and Global Security Environment
Beyond bilateral interaction, this visit must also be seen in the context of the broader security environment facing South Asia and the Indian Ocean region.

• The Indian Ocean is increasingly becoming a theatre of strategic competition, involving major powers, middle powers, and small-island states. The Maldives’ geographic position, with access to sea-lines of communication (SLOCs) and strategic ocean space, makes it a key node in maritime strategy.

• Non-traditional security threats—such as maritime terrorism, piracy, trafficking in persons, narcotics smuggling, natural-disaster vulnerability, and climate change—are ascending in importance. Defence cooperation across states that share ocean-space is thus more relevant than ever.

• The evolving strategic environment also involves great-power competition, alliances, and partnerships. As small states like the Maldives engage with a variety of partners, the choices they make affect regional alignment and security architecture.

• For Pakistan, which has land-based challenges, this kind of maritime or island-state outreach represents strategic diversification, enabling it to project influence and cultivate partnerships beyond its immediate neighbours.

Benefits to Both Parties

Let us summarise the tangible benefits to each party from this cooperation:

Benefits to Pakistan:

• Extension of its defence diplomacy to the Indian Ocean region, enhancing its strategic footprint.

• Strengthening of professional reputation, because the Maldives leadership publicly praised Pakistan’s armed forces’ professionalism and counter-terrorism efforts. 

• Potential for maritime collaboration, which adds a sea-component to Pakistan’s predominantly land-focused security orientation.

• Enhanced bilateral ties; by engaging positively with the Maldives, Pakistan reinforces its role as a partner for smaller states, which may pay dividends in broader diplomatic forums.

Benefits to the Maldives:

• Access to training, capacity-building, and professional support from Pakistan’s seasoned armed forces.

• Diversification of defence partnerships, which can reduce over-reliance on a single major power and thus enhance sovereignty.

• Enhanced ability to address maritime and island-state security challenges, including patrol of its maritime zones, counter-trafficking, disaster-response readiness and other non-traditional threats.

• Symbolic reinforcement of its strategic weight: meeting with Pakistan’s top military official shows that the Maldives is a regional player worthy of high-level engagement.

Potential Next Steps and Roadmap

To translate the goodwill from the visit into actionable programmes, the following roadmap might be considered:

1. Drafting of Defence Cooperation MoU: Establish a formal Memorandum of Understanding between Pakistan and the Maldives that outlines areas of cooperation, institutional mechanisms, training schedules, logistic support arrangements, MDA linkages, etc.

2. Establishment of Joint Working Group: Constitute a bilateral Joint Defence Cooperation Working Group (Pakistan–Maldives) that meets annually and monitors implementation of agreed activities.

3. Training Calendar & Officer Exchanges: Pakistan to open slots in its staff colleges, naval and air academies for Maldives officers; similarly, Maldives to host Pakistan personnel for maritime-domain visits or island-defence familiarisation.

4. Joint Exercise Planning: Plan a bilateral maritime/humanitarian exercise in Maldivian waters, focusing on search & rescue, littoral patrol, counter-trafficking, or disaster-response.

5. Logistics and Maritime Support Framework: Explore agreements in port call facilities, refuelling/logistics, shore-based maintenance in Maldives, which would give Pakistan’s naval/coast-guard assets a friendly harbour in the central Indian Ocean.

6. Information and Intelligence Sharing: Develop proper channels for maritime intelligence sharing, particularly covering the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), maritime domain awareness (MDA), and non-traditional threats such as trafficking and illicit maritime activities.

7. Disaster-Response Collaboration: Since the Maldives is highly vulnerable to climate-driven risks, Pakistan and the Maldives could jointly develop disaster-response mechanisms, including deployment of rapid response medical/maritime teams, and exercises in HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief).

8. Review & Reporting Mechanism: Regular annual reviews of progress, transparency in outcomes and publications of engagements would help institutionalise the relationship and maintain momentum beyond the initial visit.

Broader Implications for Pakistan–Maldives and Regional Architecture

The deepening of defence ties between Pakistan and the Maldives has broader implications:

• It reinforces the idea that Indian Ocean littoral states are forming a network of defence and security cooperation that extends beyond bilateral neighbour-to-neighbour relations. The Maldives–Pakistan link becomes part of a network of partnerships that includes states from South Asia, the Gulf, East Africa and beyond.

• It highlights the overlapping of land-based and maritime strategic theatres. While Pakistan has traditionally focused on land-based threats and immediate bordering states, this cooperation underscores its entry into maritime and island-state partnerships.

• It strengthens the Maldives’ security architecture by giving it additional partners and options, thereby reducing the risk of dependence on any single major power. This in turn enhances its strategic posture and ability to navigate between larger powers.

• For regional security frameworks, this kind of defence diplomacy contributes to building trust and capacity amongst smaller and mid-sized states, which is important in an era where great-power rivalry makes inclusive regional security architectures more valuable.

Conclusion

The visit of General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistan, to the Maldives this week stands out as a meaningful and timely milestone in Pakistan–Maldives defence and security cooperation. It reflects shared recognition of evolving security challenges in the region, and a commitment to strengthen military-to-military engagements, maritime domain cooperation, training exchanges and broader defence diplomacy.

The ceremonial aspects of the visit—the guard of honour, meetings with top civil and military leadership in the Maldives—underscore the high-level esteem in which the relationship is held. The substance of the visit—discussions on the evolving global and regional security environment, and on avenues to further enhance bilateral defences—signals real intent to move cooperation from aspiration to action. 

While challenges remain—resourcing, operationalising cooperation, ensuring regional sensitivities are respected—the framework now exists for both Pakistan and the Maldives to build a robust and mutually beneficial defence partnership. For Pakistan, this strengthens its strategic outreach into the Indian Ocean; for the Maldives, it enhances its defence capacity and diversifies its partnerships.

Looking ahead, what will matter most is turn-key implementation: training programmes, joint maritime operations, intelligence sharing, logistic support frameworks, and institutionalised review mechanisms. If sustained, this cooperation could become a model for how medium and small states in the Indian Ocean region engage with friendlier powers to enhance maritime security, respond jointly to non-traditional threats, and build resilience in an uncertain strategic environment.

In sum, this week’s visit is not merely symbolic—it is a signal to the region that Pakistan and the Maldives intend to deepen their defence and security cooperation, and that their partnership is ready to evolve in scope, complexity and substance. As global and regional security dynamics continue to shift, such partnerships will become increasingly relevant, not only for the two countries involved, but for the broader maritime domain of the Indian Ocean and the Indo-Pacific.