Maldivian President Muizzu is choosing China over India: What is at play?
Mohamed Muizzu is currently on a five-day visit to China, courting investors and trying to deepen bilateral ties. In an address at the Maldives Business Forum in Fujian Province, he termed China as the island nation's «closest» ally.
Muizzu has also asked China to send more tourists to the Maldives after a massive row was triggered last week as several ministers of Maldives made disparaging and unsavoury references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lakshadweep visit. The episode led to calls in India for a boycott of the Maldives.
Many believe that the controversy was triggered by PM Modi's bid to promote Lakshadweep as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.
However, India-Maldives ties were expected to be tense after the election of pro-China Muizzu to the top post in the Maldives last year, after the rule of incumbent pro-India president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
India-Maldives ties came under stress when Muizzu, widely seen as a pro-China leader, maintained after assuming charge as the president in November last year that he would keep his election promise of evicting Indian military personnel from his country. Perhaps this was the reason Muizzu's proposed visit to New Delhi in November could not materialise.
Why is Maldives choosing China over India, and what does it mean for the three countries?
Also read: Maldives, China sign 21 agreements after Muizzu-Xi meeting amid diplomatic row with India
Muizzu, China's man at the top
Muizzu's party, the People's National Congress, is viewed as heavily pro-China. Its leader, former president Abdullah Yameen who is now in jail, made Maldives a part of China's 'One Belt One Road' when he was the Maldives president between 2013 and 2018.
