India has recently sought to strengthen its leadership in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives, known as a luxury holiday destination, is located along several busy shipping routes.
The Maldives plans to invest in independent defense in its geographically extensive territorial waters. The island nation ordered the Indian troops to leave the country.
Behind the changed line of the Maldives is a new president Mohamed Muizu. In his first address to parliament, the president said he plans to develop the Maldives National Self Defense Force’s patrolling capabilities on busy thoroughfares.
President Muizu, who won the elections in September, announced that India will start withdrawing its troops from the islands next month. The soldiers stationed in the Maldives are mainly the crews of three naval reconnaissance aircraft.
Maldives looks to China
The island group is of interest to the region’s major powers because of its strategic location. Maldives now seems to be distancing itself from India and getting closer to China. The population of the Maldives is about half a million.
The Maldives has accused the Indian Coast Guard of violating its territorial waters and harassing Maldivian fishing vessels.
President Muizu distances himself from India in other ways as well. He announced that the Maldives will no longer continue the agreement concluded in 2019 on the research and mapping of the aquatic nature of the coral islands. According to Muizu, a foreign state cannot define the borders of the Maldives. The fragmented group of islands of the Maldives is located on both sides of the equator.
The Maldivian opposition accuses the new president of submitting to China’s mascot.
Somekärhämä with India
Emotions run hot not only in domestic politics, but also in foreign politics. Maldives is an Islamic country. The Hindu nationalist policy of the current Indian leadership raises doubts in the Muslim society.
On social media, relations between India and the Maldives have escalated into a spat. The ministers of President Muizu’s government had time to nominate the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi “clown and terrorist”. The updates have since been destroyed.
Indian celebrities have hit back and urged tourists to choose a holiday destination closer to the Maldives instead. Tourism brings in a third of the Maldives’ income. The Maldives, on the other hand, has called for a boycott of Indian products.
AFP