Maldives’ Growing Proximity with China: Gain or Loss for India?

Posted on
Featured Image

Since Mohamed Muizu became the elected president of the Maldives in September 2023, a series of anti-India sentiments has been sweeping the country. Evidently, the allegiance of President Muizzu’s clearly lies in China. President Muizzu has earlier given the deadline for withdrawing Indian troops from the country, which will be an eventual move, accepted by India. A few days earlier, the two maritime neighbourhood countries got into a spat after a reference from a Maldivian minister to call India a ‘bully’ of the smaller countries of the region. New Delhi reacted by reminding the amount of aid, $4.5 billion, that the Maldives accepts from India.

Furthermore, while Maldives wants ‘India out’, the withdrawal of military personnel in any form in the island country, and the signing of defence ties with China creates a wary situation for the region. Maldives and China have had diplomatic and economic agreements with China in the past. In January, when President Muizzu visited China to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping and signed 20 agreements. However, this is the first time that Beijing and Male have formally established defence ties. Scholars have pointed out that this was a surprising and very quick move by Maldivian’s newly elected president and obviously will upset New Delhi.

Geography of Maldives is a Strategic Advantage

This content is for members only.

All the views and opinions expressed are those of the author. Image Credit – Al Majalla.

About the Author

Sanchaly Bhattacharya is a teaching assistant at the Jindal School of International Affairs (JSIA). She is a contributing writer for various think tanks and news media outlets such as Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA), Defence and Security Alert Magazine and Modern Diplomacy. She is currently pursuing Master of Arts (MA) in Diplomacy, Law & Business from O. P. Jindal Global University (JGU) and Master of Public Administration (MPA) in Governance & Public Policy from Netaji Subhash Open University, Kolkata. She holds a Bachelors degree in Geography & Economics from West Bengal State University.

Related Posts

Featured Image

India’s Foreign Policy Achievements for the Last Five Years

The world is currently witnessing several turmoils in geopolitics. While two major conflicts have been happening along with numerous minor tussles, the world is coping with the increasing fear of a ‘new cold-war era’ between the U.S. and China. This year is also crucial to have elections in some major countries like the U.S., India, Taiwan and others. Many academic debates are currently surrounding the government’s policies for the welfare and development of the country. This article will set an evaluation of India’s foreign policy to take stock of developments and achievements in the past five years is necessary.

Featured Image

Sweden’s NATO Accession: What it Means for Russia-Ukraine War

After Finland joined NATO in 2023, Sweden followed and became an official member of NATO. After months of uncertainty caused by the hesitations of Turkey and Hungary, Sweden officially became a member of NATO. Turkey’s objections to Sweden’s membership were linked to concerns over the country’s policy towards the Kurdish militant organisations. A deal involving the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey appears to have played a role in unlocking Turkey’s changed stance on Sweden. Sweden, considering the deteriorating security environment since 2014, brought back its ‘Total Defence’ model in its defence policy

Please Login to Comment.