The first official visit from Turkey to the Maldives since the establishment of diplomatic relations was on 9 February 2005, when Prime Minister Erdoğan visited the Maldives in the aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami disaster in South East Asia on 26 December 2004. The visit to Turkey by Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on 15–21 April 2008, was the first official visit from the Maldives to Turkey.