India and the Maldives appear to be mending fences, exchanging overtures to bolster their partnership in a diplomatic dance that analysts say is driven partly by New Delhi’s worry over China’s creeping influence in the Indian Ocean.
Ties were strained after President Mohamed Muizzu, who came to power on an anti-India campaign, told Delhi to withdraw its troops from his country. The 89 soldiers had been operating and maintaining two helicopters and one fixed-wing aircraft that India previously gifted the Maldives.
India withdrew the last of its soldiers by the May 10 deadline the Maldives had set.
India, like many countries, is trying to manage China’s growing influence and “wouldn’t like to lose the Maldives completely”, said Harsh Pant, an international-relations professor at King’s College London.
“If the Maldives is trying to engage India more substantively then it is in India’s interest to reciprocate and that is what India is doing,” he said.
During the trip, India announced it would extend by another year the maturity date of a US$50 million loan to the Maldives, in the form of a treasury bill, to give Male more time to repay the debt.
Given the geopolitical considerations, analysts say the Maldives cannot completely abandon Delhi, despite Muizzu’s shift towards China and commitment to reducing his nation’s dependence on India.
China had already wielded its leverage over the Maldives to secure infrastructure projects and push to expel Indian military personnel, Pant said.
