The Com­mon­wealth Min­is­ters Ac­tion Group (CMAG) has agreed to place the mem­ber­ship of the Mal­dives in abeyance. CMAG, led by T&T For­eign Af­fairs and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan, con­clud­ed its meet­ing on the sit­u­a­tion in the Mal­dives on Wednes­day. The meet­ing was called be­cause of po­lit­i­cal ten­sions in the coun­try. A state­ment is­sued said the three-mem­ber CMAG del­e­ga­tion heard state­ments from Dr Has­san Saeed, Ad­vis­er to the new Mal­dives Pres­i­dent and Dr Fara­hanaz Faizal, who rep­re­sent­ed the for­mer pres­i­dent.

CMAG agreed that an in­de­pen­dent and im­par­tial in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the events which oc­curred on Feb­ru­ary 6 and 7.

The team said there should be in­ter­na­tion­al par­tic­i­pa­tion in any in­ves­tiga­tive mech­a­nism.

The state­ment said: "CMAG recog­nised the need for heal­ing in the Mal­dives." It called for re­straint and mu­tu­al re­spect on the part of all cit­i­zens in that coun­try at this time. The CMAG team urged both the Pres­i­dent and the for­mer leader to en­gage in mean­ing­ful di­a­logue "with­out pre­con­di­tions, to agree on an ear­ly date for elec­tions."

It said such elec­tions should take place this year. Oth­er mem­bers of the CMAG team were For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter of Bangladesh Dr Dipu Moni and Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs and In­ter­na­tion­al Co­op­er­a­tion of Sier­ra Leone Bernard Mem­be.