India and the Maldives on Monday reset ties that had plummeted after Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu took office a year ago and leaned into a closer relationship with China. The Maldivian leader’s renewed outreach to India came during a visit to New Delhi amid an economic downturn in the Indian Ocean archipelago.
The visit marked a turnaround from nearly a year ago, when Muizzu came to power vowing to reduce India’s influence in his country.
“India is a key partner in the socio-economic and infrastructure development of the Maldives and has stood by the Maldives in times of need,” Muizzu told reporters Monday in New Delhi while standing alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Muizzu came to India as the tiny country grapples with an economic downturn. Foreign exchange reserves have dipped precariously and the International Monetary Fund has warned that it faces the possibility of debt distress. The Maldivian leader said he is seeking financial aid.
India has agreed to a financial support package that includes a $400-million currency swap agreement. Several agreements announced by New Delhi to strengthen cooperation include building a new port in the Maldives and accelerating work to link key islands with modern transport networks. The two countries also plan to begin talks on a free trade agreement.
Calling the Maldives a “close friend,” Modi said that “we have adopted a comprehensive economic and maritime security partnership to give a strategic direction to our bilateral ties."
Muizzu’s five-day to India is scheduled to end Thursday. Analysts here say it has succeeded in repairing relations between India and the Maldives. Muizzu’s pro-China stance had reversed his predecessor’s policy, who had flagged concerns about the Maldives debt to Beijing and in recent years had built closer ties to India.
In what was seen in India as a diplomatic snub, the Maldivian President had visited Beijing in January before coming to India, breaking a longstanding tradition of newly-elected Maldivian leaders making New Delhi their first foreign stop. His administration signed a military assistance agreement with Beijing and allowed a Chinese research ship to dock in the country. Earlier this year, Muizzu asked about 80 Indian troops posted in the Maldives for disaster and humanitarian assistance, to leave the country.
But analysts say his government’s anti-India stance has changed in recent months as both countries have worked to repair frayed ties. They point out that the Maldives, which consists of about 1200 small islands, is heavily reliant on its giant neighbor for vital imports such as food. Hundreds of Maldivians also head to neighboring India for healthcare -- reducing dependency on India would not be easy.
“Once President Muizzu did realize that things are not going to work out by antagonizing India, and in particular, the support he might need from a growing economic power like India, in the vicinity, the calculus would have shifted,” according to Harsh Pant, vice president, studies and foreign policy at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
“That is why we have gradually seen anti-India voices being marginalized in the Muizzu administration,” Pant told VOA.
In New Delhi, Muizzu addressed concerns that had grown in India of a disruption in regional balance as he moved closer to China, which has been increasing its footprint in the Indian Ocean region.
“We are confident that our engagements with other nations will not undermine India’s security interests,” Muizzu told the Times of India newspaper in an interview.
The statement will allay concerns in New Delhi of a strategic setback for India in the Maldives, according to Chintamani Mahapatra, of the Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies.
“That is quite reassuring from a person who asked the Indian military personnel to leave [the] Maldives,” Mahapatra told VOA.
Resetting ties with the Maldives will help India at a time when it faces a challenge with neighbors such as Bangladesh, where former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, India’s close ally, was ousted in August after student-led protests. Anti-India sentiment has risen in the country, where many blame New Delhi for having supported Hasina, according to observers.
“It would give India an opportunity to again underscore its own heft in the region by saying we are willing to help smaller countries in the neighborhood at a time of crisis. But, also, it is in India’s interest that [the] Maldives economy does not falter,” Pant said. "There is much turbulence in the region economically."
In the last two decades, small South Asian countries like the Maldives, that sit along vital trade routes in the Indian Ocean and enable monitoring of crucial sea routes, have witnessed a geopolitical tussle between Asian rivals China and India.
Stability in the region is important at a time of global turbulence according to analyst Mahapatra.
“It is a very good development for South Asia, at a very critical time when two wars are on, one in Europe, another one in West Asia creating a lot of energy problems, leading to global economic problems,” Mahapatra said.
