India can take comfort in the fact that if there's one country in its neighbourhood, besides Bangladesh, where there's a friendly government in place, it is the Maldives. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's trip to the island archipelago this week, the first full-fledged bilateral visit since India-leaning President Ibrahim Solih took office in November, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance, is a long-awaited reaffirmation of Male's "India First" policy, and an underscoring of the rapidly diminishing clout of Beijing in its vulnerable southern flank.
More than that, it is also Delhi's first foreign policy success after it was caught napping. India's wait and watch policy raised many eyebrows, but by accident or design, a disparate Opposition grouping coalesced under former President Mohammed Nasheed, ended the deeply unpopular Abdulla Yameen's run and with it, the widening footprint of China. India was able to do little over its bigger neighbour's co-opting of Myanmar and Nepal, its propping up of "terrorist central" Pakistan, and attempts to edge it out of Afghanistan, where India's soft power in providing education, medical care and building infrastructure - as well as the national cricket team - had won hearts and minds.
Ms Swaraj's visit therefore marks a new beginning. The two nations signed an agreement for a $800 million line of credit for a slew of infrastructure projects, as part of the $1.4 billion financial assistance secured earlier that will put Indian companies back in the game after the red faces when GMR was forced to exit the airport project. More important is the strategic import of the reiteration by Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid, who said his country would "remain sensitive to India's security and strategic concerns". No wonder New Delhi is smiling.
