Narendra Modi and President Muizzu recently met in Dubai along the sidelines of CoP-28 and reportedly agreed to set up a “core group" on ties that would also look into the matter of troop withdrawal. The stakes have clearly risen.
We may need to outline substantive pay-offs in the future for Maldives should it align its interests firmly with ours. Realistic versions of such a package need to be crafted for other South Asian countries too.
Over time, our neighbours seeing value in the emergence of our economy could bend the region’s dynamics against those bent on its disruption. This was meant to be an Asian Century, after all, not Chinese.
. Read more on livemint.com