Maldives President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s effusive praise of “close and historic ties” with India during the visit of Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar to the Maldives from August 9 to 11 was widely reported as a U-turn from the incendiary “India Out” campaign that brought him to power last year.
“India has always been one of our closest allies and invaluable partners, facilitating and providing aid whenever we need it,” Muizzu said at a ceremony during Jaishankar’s visit, reiterating a “full commitment to strengthening the historic relations between our two countries to reach new heights in the coming years.”
After a meeting with Jaishankar, the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) welcomed the “sudden recalibration of the Maldives-India policy.” The former ruling party condemned the Muizzu administration’s “initial stoking of anti-India sentiments through aggressive slogans, mockery and the branding of a time-tested friend and development partner as a regional bully.”
The MDP has called for a public apology for the “actions, lies and irresponsible comments from its officials which have resulted in significant damage to the Maldives foreign and economic outlook.”
But Muizzu saw no reason to apologize. He has insisted that efforts to repair and normalize strained relations with India do not represent a policy shift from his previous anti-India stance.
The government will maintain close relations with any country that respects Maldivian sovereignty and independence, he said on August 11, a day after welcoming Jaishankar in Malé. “There has never been a moment when we have moved away from that policy,” Muizzu told an Adhadhu journalist who doorstopped him for a rare opportunity to pose a question.
The removal of Indian soldiers stationed in the Maldives was part of a campaign manifesto affirmed by voters, Muizzu said. “God willing, that has been resolved through the close relations between ourselves and India and through respectful dialogue,” he said, describing India as “our closest friendly country and closest neighbor.”
Muizzu expressed gratitude for India’s “generous” quota for staple food imports and restructuring of debt payments. The Maldives will ensure the “peace and stability” of the Indian Ocean, he assured.
The president’s recent remarks reflect a shift to a more pragmatic approach from a pro-China tilt after assuming office in November 2023, Swaran Singh, professor of international relations at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, told the South China Morning Post.
“India is aware of that reality and has managed to bring India-Maldives ties back to the even keel,” he explained, referring to Muizzu breaking with tradition to make Beijing his first port of call instead of Delhi, and signing several pacts with China, including a defense cooperation agreement in March.
Media coverage of Jaishankar’s first visit to the Indian Ocean archipelago since the change of government last year highlighted the stark contrast between the Muizzu administration’s early moves to reduce reliance on India and the more recent overtures to mend fences and reverse a steep decline in tourist arrivals from India.
Earlier this month, the Maldives tourism minister led a delegation to conduct roadshows dubbed “Welcome India” in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore, seeking to woo Indian holidaymakers back to Maldivian beaches.
Tourist arrivals from India have been falling since a diplomatic row sparked by derogatory remarks from three Maldivian deputy ministers against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The incident in early January prompted a boycott campaign backed by celebrities and Bollywood stars.
Some 74,985 tourists from India visited the Maldives by August 12 this year, down precipitously from 128,756 tourists by August 15 last year. The massive shortfall has caused an estimated revenue loss of $150 million.
“They kept saying ‘India Out’ then. Nine months later, now it’s ‘Welcome India,’” former Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid observed ahead of the Indian external affairs minister’s visit.
“They said, ‘we don’t have any interest in working with neighboring countries.’ But what happened? Despite traveling all over the world, there was no one to hand out even a single cent,” Shahid, the MDP’s president, said. Only India responded positively, he added, referring to Muizzu’s maiden visit to New Delhi to attend Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in June, during which he had sought concessions on repaying a $150 million bond.
Shahid’s derisive comment drew a sharp rebuke from former President Mohamed Nasheed, who admonished his estranged colleagues in the MDP for “trying to score political points” instead of welcoming the apparent policy change.
A recent op-ed titled “How can the Maldives forsake India?” by Dhauru editor Moosa Latheef echoed the new consensus. The veteran journalist recalled conversations with diplomats who lamented the folly and shortsightedness of antagonizing India. The Muizzu administration would inevitably be forced to seek Indian financial support, they predicted.
“The president noted India’s assistance to the Maldives in his speech with the aim of strengthening relations between the two countries anew in the future. He is the one who bears responsibility for saving the country from the slump in the economy over the country’s foreign debt. Therefore, the government knows how important Indian assistance is to the Maldives at this juncture,” Latheef wrote.
During his visit, Jaishankar inaugurated water and sewerage networks on 28 islands – financed by a $800-million Indian Line of Credit arranged during the MDP government – as well as six “High Impact Community Development Projects” completed with Indian grant aid. He inspected progress on a bridge under construction by India’s Afcons Infrastructure to connect the capital Malé with three nearby islands. In a visit to the southernmost atoll, he jointly inaugurated land reclamation, shore protection, and detour link road projects in Addu City.
Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were also exchanged on training 1,000 Maldivian civil servants in India and introducing the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to the Maldives.
“Maldives is one of the cornerstones of our ‘Neighborhood First’ policy, it is also one of our Vision SAGAR, as well as of our commitment to the Global South,” Jaishankar said in a statement. “To put it succinctly in the words of my Prime Minister Narendra Modi – for India, neighborhood is a priority and, in the neighborhood, Maldives is a priority.”
The change of heart in Malé would suggest that the reverse is equally true. For foreign policy in the Maldives, India is the priority.