What are Honorary Consuls?

Honorary consuls are active in many places in addition to the diplomatic missions and consular posts. Honorary consuls are appointed where the establishment of a career consular post would seem too great an effort, but where the size of the consular district of the responsible mission and the number of resident or visiting Germans nevertheless make it sensible to have a local contact point. At present there are approximately 350 honorary consuls. They are volunteers who do not have to be German citizens, in fact they are often citizens of the host country. Given their long years of working experience in the host state, they are well connected and have an intimate knowledge of conditions on the ground and are thus in a position to provide valuable assistance to Germans in emergency situations.

Honorary consuls are not entitled to perform all official consular acts, nor are they obliged to be permanently present.

Our Honorary Consul in the Maldives

Sanjay I. Maniku yesterday was declared new Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Male. He was handed over the official document (“exequatur”) which permits him to exercise this position on Wednesday 13^th of February 2019 by Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid in the presence of German Ambassador Jörn Rohde.

Mr. Maniku, Executive Director of Universal Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. and an Electronic and Electrical Engineer by profession, is a German citizen.

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Brief CV:

Born 1977 in Germany

Educated in Maldives, the UK and Singapore

Married with 2 children