Edited by Deepali Verma
China and the Maldives advanced their relationship further on January 10 during newly elected President Mohamed Muizzu’s first state visit to Beijing, post a campaign in which he cast China’s regional rival Bharat as a threat to sovereignty.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, making an address at the Great Hall of the People, called Muizzu “an old friend” as the Asian giant laid the ground for further investment in the Indian Ocean archipelago by nodding to a “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership”.
“China and the Maldives’ relations are sitting on a historic opportunity to carry forward the past and forge ahead into the future,” Xi told Muizzu, Chinese state media reported.
Muizzu started his regime in November, after winning on his “India Out” campaign platform under which he called New Delhi’s huge involvement as a threat to sovereignty. His government has since then urged dozens of locally based Indian military personnel to leave while discussing opportunities for Chinese investors despite being indebted to Beijing.
Relations between Bharat and China deteriorated once the soldiers from both sides clashed in the western Himalayas in June 2020, resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers. China, meanwhile, confirmed the death of four soldiers.
China’s aim to upgrade ties with the Maldives is setting the stage for further investment in a region where Bharat has already seen another neighbour, Sri Lanka, gravitate towards China.
“During the conversation, President Dr Muizzu conveyed his gratitude for China’s important role in the Maldives’ economic success… and infrastructure development,” a statement released from his presidential office read following the meeting, adding that “20 key agreements between the two countries” had been inked.
The Maldives owes China $1.37 billion, or around 20% of its public debt, as per the World Bank data, making Beijing its largest bilateral creditor ahead of Saudi Arabia and Bharat, to which it owes $124 million and $123 million, respectively.
Chinese firms have made an additional investment of $1.37 billion in the Maldives since its decision to join the Belt and Road Initiative in 2014, data from the American Enterprise Institute think tank shows.
“China extends support to the Maldives in safeguarding its national sovereignty, independence and national dignity,” state media reported Xi as saying. Beijing would be willing to “exchange experience of state governance” with Male, Xinhua said.
Muizzu was guided to a tour of the Chinese Communist Party Museum in Beijing ahead of meeting with Xi, a video on X, from his presidential office account showed.
Notably, the World Bank in an October development report on the Maldives warned further cosying up to China could mean trouble as a “build-up of sovereign exposure” had taken place during the pandemic and there was a “lack of domestic investment opportunities”.
Xi remarks that he backed increasing the number of direct flights between the two countries, in a potential boon for the Maldives’ travel and tourism sector, which constituted 79% of economic growth in 2022, as per the Asian Development Bank.
