The many positive signals emanating from Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu’s visit to New Delhi indicate that strained ties are not only being patched up but also that the relationship is being pushed to a higher plane with trade pact talks on the cards.
The upgrade of ties to a comprehensive economic and maritime security partnership is a huge swing from the time of the polls earlier this year in Maldives when “India out” and the ouster of a few members of the armed forces who were helping fly medical rescue missions were Mr Muizzu’s election cards that he used to win.
The change of heart in the time since the Male president chose to visit China first after ascending the presidency again and seeking a security pact in Beijing may be owed to the dwindling count of tourist dollars in the country’s treasury.
Indian tourists were beginning to give the holiday islands a skip once social media calls for boycotting Maldives demonstrated their effect. That may have forced Maldives to see the value of pragmatism.
Bowing to geographical proximity to India with the President going out of the way to invite Indian tourists back to the Male version of paradise, Mr Muizzu has negotiated the U-turn very well with promises from China and help from India in terms of a currency swap of $400 million and Rs 3,000 crore that will help the islands keep their foreign exchange reserves intact as well as the placing of an ETA on the anvil.
This is a win-win situation for the Maldives, the Indian Ocean archipelago whose nearest land mass is India and Sri Lanka, the latter another island nation that saw the benefit of Indian aid when it desperately needed friends at the time of its gravest economic crisis.
India has played its foreign relations cards well in the matter of dealing with its immediate southern neighbours, making Sri Lanka see the value of a helping hand and Maldives the reality of staying close enough to India while still being free to strike deals with China.
India has nursed the ties back to health with just patience, a little rope by way of election rhetoric to the leaders of both island nations and help with finances without the fear of falling into a China debt trap.
