After a successful state visit to China, Maldivan President Mohamed Muizzu categorically told his countrymen that the Maldives may be a small nation but will not be bullied by any neighbour. According to him, Maldives is an independent state and it is not a country that lies in the backyard of any other nation. Meanwhile, the Maldivian authorities issued a notice to India, calling for the withdrawal of troops by March 15. The Maldivian President was of the view that China respects Maldives’ territorial integrity policy and its statehood.
The impressions of the Maldives-India row deepened every other day after anti-India Mohamed Muizzu got an unprecedented victory during the Presidential run in the archipelago nation in September last year. Historically, President Muizzu contested the nationwide Presidential election on a single-point agenda of ending foreign influence and ejection of Indian military troops from the country. After gaining power, President Muizzu paid his once foreign trip to China and signed a raft of deals, which included infrastructure construction, medical and health care, improvement of people’s livelihoods, new energy sources, agriculture, and marine environmental protection agreements. Meanwhile, the joint communique issued during the visit manifests that longstanding China-Maldives relations are built upon an exemplary model of mutual respect, peaceful co-existence, cooperation, and teamwork in all spheres.
The Republic of Maldives, an archipelago nation in South Asia, has been a battleground between two of its powerful neighbours, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of India over the past decades. Both Beijing and New Delhi had been in a close contest to install their henchmen in the tiny but strategically important country in the Indian Ocean region. Both China and India invested massively in Maldives in recent years to accomplish their political and strategic agendas. Interestingly, two local leading political groups are aligned with each of the contesting foreign powers, the Maldives Democratic Party of former President Abdullah Yameen which is seen as pro-India, advocates for more engagement with New Delhi while ruling President Muizzu and his Peoples’ National Congress is inclined toward Beijing and struggling to improve Maldives ties with China. New Delhi considers the Indian Ocean archipelago to be within its sphere of influence but the country has shifted to China’s orbit, which poured billions of dollars into Maldives so far. Maldives received more than one billion in loans from China for the construction of historic bridges to connect Capital Male with the airport island and other suburban localities near the capital. Chinese fiscal assistance to the Maldives was viewed with great concern by New Delhi, who in turn offered massive economic and military aid to Maale to counter Chinese influence in the neighbouring state.
Historically, Maldives had been a grazing field for Indian companies for exports of essential commodities, electronic products, vehicles, agri-products, food, medicines, healthcare, and other items of daily use, while India has the largest share in Maldives’ tourism industry, that accounts for nearly a third of the country’s economy. New Delhi had been exerting pressure on Maldivian rulers to influence their domestic and foreign policies causing strong anti-India sentiments and reactions at all levels. Although, Maldives-India relations were on a downward trajectory after President Muizzu assumed office in September, however, tagging of the Indian Prime Minister as Clan over social media websites by the Maldivian Ministers further deteriorated bilateral relations between the two nations. Presently, the tussle between powerful neighbours and the politics of local politicians and parties has brought the Maldives to the centre stage of the ongoing regional rivalry between China and India. Both belligerent powers and their proponents worked actively to bring the tiny nation into the sphere of their like-minded nation without considering the worst scenarios their nation could face in the future. The tiny state refused to accept Indian hegemony by not subduing pressure from New Delhi. New Delhi has met another strategic backlash in its futile efforts to gain the status of mini-power in South Asia, however, New Delhi is less likely to alter its dogma after the newest humiliation and setback.
