India’s handling of the diplomatic tension with the Maldives has come in for praise from the former President of the island nation – Mohamed Nasheed.
Speaking to an Indian TV channel, he said, “When the president of the Maldives wanted the Indian military personnel to leave, you know what India did? They did not display muscle, did not resort to arm twisting, but told the Maldivian government to discuss … that is the action of a responsible superpower. It is not a ‘bully’.”
Diplomatic relations between India and the Maldives nosedived after Mohamed Muizzu, the current President of the Maldives, asked India to withdraw all its troops from the islands.
He escalated it soon after by saying no military personnel will be permitted in the Maldives even in civilian attire after May 10.
Muizzu came to power last year on an anti-India campaign. He is known to have a pro-Chinna stance.
After asking Indian troops to leave, he signed a military agreement with China on March 5. The defence agreement offers free military assistance to the Maldives in an attempt to strengthen bilateral ties.
He followed this up with the decision of not renewing India’s contract for conducting hydrographic surveys.
Soon after he came to power, he chose to visit Turkey and China on his first foreign trips, instead of India as had been the convention.
On the last day of his 5-day visit to China, he said that though Maldives was a small country, it was not a licence to bully it.
The bully comment drew a sharp response from India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, who said, “Big bullies don’t provide $4.5 billion dollars to neighbours in trouble. Big bullies don’t supply vaccines to others when Covid is on…”
At least three ministers from the Maldives government were suspended after they made derogatory remarks against PM Modi when he visited Lakshadweep in January this year.
The remarks drew sharp criticism and a call from many Indians to boycott travel to the Maldives Ex-President Nasheed has acknowledged that the strained relations have hit the tourism industry hard. ‘Maldives is sorry‘, he was quoted as saying.
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