An air travel bubble, first such arrangement in South Asia, has been established between India and the Maldives and this is expected to be operational from next week. This was announced by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during a virtual meeting between him and the Foreign Minister of Maldives Abdulla Shahid on August 13.
Regular air services between India and the Maldives were suspended during the previous months due to COVID-19. While there are more than 2400 active cases of COVID-19 in the Maldives, an overwhelming majority of them are in the capital city of Male. The inhabited islands and resort islands of the Maldives have been largely unaffected, according to an official statement.
