Maldives President Muizzu breaks world record with 15-hour press conference

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on Saturday conducted a marathon press conference lasting nearly 15 hours. The marathon session, which began at 10:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Saturday and stretched past midnight, broke the previous record of 14 hours set by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019.

According to the President’s Office, Muizzu, 46, answered a stream of questions from journalists, many of which were submitted by members of the public, taking only brief pauses for prayers. “The conference extended past midnight, a new world record by a president, with President Muizzu continuously responding to questions from journalists,” the official statement said.

In October 2019, Ukraine’s National Records Agency claimed that Zelenskyy’s 14-hour press conference had broken an earlier record of over seven hours held by Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, AFP reported.

The statement said Muizzu, who came to power in 2023, was also marking his island nation’s rise by two places to 104th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

MUIZZU BACKTRACKS ON CLAIMS AGAINST INDIA

A key takeaway from the press event was Muizzu’s updated stance on military agreements signed by the previous administration with foreign governments, particularly India, a topic that had been central to his 2023 election campaign.

Muizzu said he was working in line with his pledge to disclose the military agreements and blamed delays on confidentiality issues, adhadhu.com online news portal reported. Bilateral discussions are ongoing. There are no issues. However, we are trying to disclose through the bilateral discussions since I made a pledge. There are no concerns,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal.

Responding to Muizzu’s statement, former foreign minister and opposition MDP chief Abdulla Shahid criticised him, saying the people of the Maldives and India deserve an apology for his false claims over the pacts during the 2023 election campaign, PTI reported.

“After years of false claims, President Muizzu has now confirmed there are no “serious concerns” with the bilateral agreements between the Maldives and India. He won the 2023 presidential election on the back of a campaign that claimed these agreements threatened our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Shahid posted on X.

ALSO READ: Pulitzer Prizes 2025: NYT wins four, full list of winners announced