The government on Wednesday gave "ex-post facto" approval for a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between India and the Maldives for cooperation in the field of disaster management. The approval was given during a meeting of the Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.
The Union cabinet has ex-post facto approved the MoU signed on August 2, 2022 between the National Disaster Management Authority of India and the National Disaster Management Authority of the Republic of Maldives on cooperation in the field of disaster management, an official release said. The MoU seeks to put in place a system, whereby both India and the Maldives will be benefited from the disaster management mechanisms of each other and it will help in strengthening the areas of preparedness, response and capacity building in the field of disaster management.
Both the countries will extend mutual support on the request of each other in the time of large scale disaster incident occurring within its territory, in the field of emergency relief, response, and humanitarian assistance, the release said. The countries will exchange information and share experiences and best practices of disaster response, mitigation, planning and preparedness.
Both sides will share satellite remote sensing data and expertise of space technology-based applications for effective disaster mitigation, including exchange of information on disaster on prevention and risk assessment. There will be cooperation in the field of advanced information technology, early warning systems, remote sensing, satellite communication and navigation services.
To consider training and capacity building programme for sectoral mainstreaming in disaster risk reduction, the parties will provide opportunities to train senior officials and rescue personnel of emergency management service in the short and long term trainings. According to the release, the countries will exchange information about the domestic and international exhibitions as well as exercises to be held in both nations and also cooperate in areas such as research, knowledge exchange, faculty support programmes, documentation in the areas of disaster risk reduction and academic programmes in disaster resilience and climate change adaptation.
Both the countries will determine further cooperation in other activities related to disaster management. The two countries may exchange tsunami advisories, storm surge, high wave alert, multi hazard vulnerability information and multi hazard risk assessment due to oceanogenic disasters along their coastal zones.
Both the countries will initiate an annual disaster management exercise that will be held in the different geographic settings of the two nations, the release said.
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