The relationship between India and Maldives isn’t something which takes India to a much stronger position internationally, but it is as natural as it comes and does help India develop in the region. To give a little background, India and Maldives share a cordial relationship which is owed to the cultural and ethnic similarity. India and Maldives, being close and friendly neighbours have developed a natural bilateral relationship, which is seen as more of friendship nowadays than a diplomatic relationship. India was among the first countries to recognize the Maldives after its independence in 1965 and establish bilateral relationships and consequently established its mission in Male in 1972. All this came from common national linguistic, commercial and religious links. With this brief introduction in mind, we can look at more specific relationship features that have been established between the two countries, and briefly talk about the problems and prospects between the two nations.
CULTURAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL LINKS
As vast the relationship between India and Maldives is, there are a few special characteristics which define the relationship in a summarized sense. First, talking about the cultural relationship, mention has to be made of the immense use of soft power by India to advance its relationship with the Maldives. The cultural development between the two countries has come from various forms of capacity building. India has assured a good relation with Maldivian students and provided them with a high level of skills training and capacity building. Scholarships and easy access for them is a key positive in the relation between the two countries. The Maldives has based its economy highly on tourism and India has not shied away from help. The Indian Cultural Centre was established in July 2011 in Male and it has brought the countries much closer than before. The Indian diaspora in the Maldives forms a crucial part of the population in the Maldives with a population of around 26,000. Around 30% of the doctors and 25% of teachers are of Indian origin.
This sustenance of Indians in the Maldives has increased the spread of their respective cultures. Even though cultural relations have been always on the rise, the economic and political relations are also to be considered. Politically talking, India has always stepped up whenever there is uncertainty within the Maldives. The 1988 Operation Cactus was the biggest example of Indian aid in times of a crisis. Back in 88, 80 armed militias from the PLO of Tamil Eelam had landed in the island country and had been working on taking over the government. India sent troops and was able to eliminate the threat. This brought the two countries closer than ever. After that, in 2014 during the water crisis in Male, India sent its ships to help produce freshwater. The most recent political crisis was back in 2015 when the first democratically elected president of Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed was arrested on terror charges. India along with the US voiced their displeasure on the arrest. The new President Abdulla Yameen had strained the relations with India, claims the current foreign affairs minister of Maldives, Abdulla Shahid. After Yameen’s defeat in 2018, the political relations were again restored. Maldives FM says that he is confident of the positive relations and this restoration was visible during the COVID crisis.
India, at the very start of the crisis, provided 6.2 tonnes of medical-aid to the Maldives, followed by constant medical and pharmaceutical help. The economic relations are even more in-depth and have been helpful for both countries. The 1981 Comprehensive Trade agreement has helped the Maldives prosper in the years. Annually, bilateral programmes have been agreed upon where development of infrastructure, health, communication and labour has prospered in the Maldives. Coming back to the 1981 agreement, the export of essential commodities, which was initially modest, have now reached new highs. In 2014, trade stood at 677 Cr Indian Rupees and in 2019 India’s export to the Maldives stood at 212 Million dollars, which clearly shows how trade has developed in the past few decades.
COMPLICATIONS WITH THE ENTRY OF CHINA
In the friendly relationship with India, China entered as a wild card, with the exceptional claims of helping the Maldives grow, economically and infrastructure wise. Once, Yameen came into power in 2014, he made sure that there was a lack of cooperation with India and an inclination towards China. The successive government has accepted that Yameen tried to play both India and China but failed spectacularly. This connotation is partly true. Back in 2014, as a part of its Belt and Road Initiative, China offered loans to the Maldives to help them develop infrastructure. The lack of foresight has come back to haunt the Maldives who had created a huge debt. Currently, the government says that they still owe $600M and with an economy highly dependent on tourism, in the time of a pandemic, find it very difficult to pay the debt off. Reaching this position was difficult as well. It was Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi who had put his ‘Neighbour First’ policy into good use by providing the Maldives $1.4B in financial assistance. The situation of Maldives can be seen in parallel to that of Sri Lanka. India’s southern neighbour also took a loan from China to increase its infrastructural capabilities but when it was unable to pay back the loan, China got a 99-year lease over a crucial Lankan port.
One could say that India has saved the Maldives from a similar situation but the future is known to none. The current Maldives Foreign Minister has said that they will be reconsidering their current agreements with China. Nonetheless, he has also at times stated that Beijing has been very generous in social development projects, mainly in the housing sector. In terms of rethinking, Maldives wants to bring China to the negotiation table to find a way out and pave the way for future partnerships. Keeping in mind the previous agreements playing highly in Chinese favour, such future partnerships do not sit well with the Indian government who has expressed concerns. Nonetheless, the Maldives foreign minister has always claimed that India is the closest friend of Maldives. At this point, it can be inferred that China is a short term partner of Maldives, whereas India has always been considered a long term ally. India cannot throw caution in the wind and start diplomatic cold war with the Maldives to force its way out of Chinese relations. For a country like the Maldives, having strategic partners in the geographical proximity is the way forward. They also claimed that the Maldives will be looking to develop relations not only with India and China but also the USA and UAE. India will need to keep Maldives’ natural growth in mind in its future endeavours with the Maldives.
CONCLUSION
India’s relationship with the Maldives has been a natural one for decades and except for a few hiccups in between, it is widely claimed that India is the most crucial partner of Maldives. India needs to realise this and assure long term stability with them. India also needs to keep in mind that the Maldives will be growing in terms of diplomatic power by trying to increase its bilateral partnerships. At this point, India needs to continue doing what it has been for the past few decades and sustaining a long term partnership won’t be difficult. The Indian government needs to keep in mind what Maldives FM thinks the relationship is based on. He says, “It is not a relationship based on size or economy, but one based on ideas and principles.”
