Chinese Maldives

When the Maldivian Ministers recently started the virulent campaign against India on the social media; it was construed as an act of frustration due to the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lakshadweep. As the Prime Minister visited the tropical region of India and praised it natural beauty. He urged the people to visit Lakshadweep. It struck a chord and the tourist gaze got focussed to the place. Maldives felt outraged out of no reason. The theory that got currency in the market was that perhaps it felt that its tourist traffic will get diverted and people will stop visiting Maldives. Without realising that Maldives witnessed the tourist boom and its economy got revived due to the Indian push. India wanted that the age old ties with the Maldivian people must be upheld. That too when COVID had devastated robust economies. But this presumption by the analysts regarding the tourism angle was proved wrong. The reason was quite different. The Rising Kashmir in its editorial on 9th January had analysed that what is happening in Maldives is not a simple issue but has geostrategic reasons and China is asserting in the Indian Ocean to destabilise India through its neighbours. We have been proved right. On Sunday Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu asked India to withdraw all the military personnel deployed in the Indian Ocean archipelago by March 15th this year. This announcement is an ultimatum and it comes after the Muizzu’s visit to China recently. He announced measures aimed against India relating to dependence on health care and food security. The incumbent Maldives regime came to power on “India Out” campaign. This campaign is aimed for withdrawal of Indian military personnel posted to operate helicopters and aircrafts. His thrust has been to bring Maldives closer to China at the cost of bilateral relations with India. This policy is meant to outwit Indian in the Indian Ocean region and Maldives is just a Chinese prop. Chinese are going to facilitate 100 bed hospital and health centre laboratories across seventeen islands. At present India is a preferred destination for Maldivian people seeking the health care and medical treatment. Besides the aircraft services provided by India for medical evacuation are in high demand. Not only that. Maldives charted its new trajectory that is delinked from its relations with India in all sectors. So that a new relation can be developed with China in those sectors. Maldives has signed agreements with China in agriculture and food security. It seeks to end import of staple foods such as rice, sugar and flour. Maldives has also started looking towards Turkey for importing rice, sugar and wheat. Besides, it will be procuring medicine from European countries and the US. So that relations with India are ended. If one peeps into the history of Indo-Maldives relation then there is a clear indication that China has been working concertedly to delink India and Maldives to stall Indian presence in the Indian Ocean. China’s stratagem is to isolate India and develop a chess board where Indian influence is strangulated. After posing a military threat to India in the Himalayas by creating hostility between India and its neighbours. China wants to checkmate India in the Indian Ocean by using its neighbours in the sea now. China has been building its policy for many decades. It has taken advantage of the growing radicalism in Maldives to hit India. Indo-Maldives relations saw an upswing in 1981 when the Treaty of Friendship was signed. But Maldivian foreign policy turned lukewarm under President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. That too when India helped to save him from the coup and Indian troops left when the stability was restored. Once democracy was restored in Maldives Gayoom started ditching India and embracing China. It was the time when China was starting to outwit India in the Indian Ocean. Indo-Maldives relations saw a thaw in 2008 again when Mohamed Nasheed came to power. But during this time his regime faced economic challenges. And China chipped in to dictate the politics in Maldives. India must evaluate the Maldivian political inclinations guided by radicalism to act against India. India can’t afford to lose strategic vision in the Indian Ocean and give benefit of doubt. India has been facing hostile neighbours in the Himalayas and now Chinese’s expansion to hamper Indian rise can have disastrous consequences in the sea. There has been a persistent Chinese intervention through small nations surrounding India to create territorial disputes. Maldives has also been claiming territories in the Indian Ocean that are an integral part of India. And this belligerent stance of Maldives that started with Prime Minister Modi’s Lakshadweep visit must be taken seriously to abort any design by China to extend its policy of string of pearls to strangulate India. India can’t procrastinate and be oblivious to Chinese designs against India in Maldives. As it is the issue of Chinese Maldives now.