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Maldives President Mohamed Muizul struck a conciliatory tone after his anti-India remarks, saying India would remain the Maldives’ “closest ally” as he seeks debt relief from New Delhi. As of the end of last year, the Maldives owed India approximately $400.9 million.

The pro-China Maldivian leader has taken a tough stance against India since he was sworn in as president in November last year, demanding within hours that India repatriate military personnel operating three aviation platforms from the Maldives by May 10.

In his first interview with local media since taking office on Thursday, President Muizu said India had played an important role in providing aid to the Maldives and had implemented “the largest number” of projects.

Maldivian news portal Edition.mv, in a report containing excerpts of the President’s interview with its Dhivehi sister publication “Mihaaru”, said that India will continue to remain the Maldives’ closest ally, stressing that there is no doubt about this.

The comments praising India come ahead of the first batch of Indian military personnel scheduled to leave the island nation this month. On May 10, President Muizu asked all 88 military personnel on three Indian aviation platforms to leave the country.

India has been providing humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of Maldives for the past few years using two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft.

The Maldives borders India, just 70 nautical miles from Minicoi Island in the Lakshadweep Islands and 300 nautical miles from the west coast of the mainland, and its location at the hub of commercial sea lanes across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) makes it strategically important. importance.

In the interview, President Muizu urged India to provide debt relief measures to the Maldives to repay “the huge loans taken by successive governments”.

“We inherited a condition of taking a lot of loans from India. So we are having discussions to explore how lenient the repayment structure of these loans can be.

President Muizu added: “Not to stop any ongoing projects… but to move forward with them quickly, so I see no reason to have any adverse impact on Maldives’ relations with India.”

President Muizu made conciliatory remarks towards India ahead of the Maldives’ parliamentary elections scheduled for mid-April.

He said the Maldives had received huge loans from India which were beyond the capacity of the Maldivian economy. “As a result, he is currently in discussions with the Indian government to explore options to repay the loan to the best of Maldives’ economic capacity,” the news portal quoted him as saying.

The president expressed hope that India would provide “debt relief measures to facilitate the repayment of these loans” and said he had expressed appreciation for the Indian government’s contribution.

During the previous regime led by pro-India leader Ibrahim Mohammad Solih, loans obtained from Exim Bank totaled $1.4 million.

“In addition to this, the amount owed by the Maldives to India as of the end of last year was MKR 6.2 billion,” he said.

“I also expressed to Prime Minister Modi during the meeting that I have no intention of stopping any ongoing projects. On the contrary, I expressed my desire to strengthen and speed up the process,” he said, referring to a meeting with Modi during the COP28 summit in Dubai in December 2023 Prime Minister’s discussion.

“I recommend setting up a high-level committee to take quick decisions even on bridge projects to ensure work is carried out quickly. The same is true for Hanima Abdul Airport,” he added.

Speaking on the issue of Indian military personnel, President Muizu said this was the “only contentious issue” that arose with India – the presence of Indian troops in the Maldives, adding that India also accepted this and agreed to withdraw its troops personnel.

“It’s not good practice to think that aid from one country to another is useless,” he said, claiming he had not taken any action or made any statement that could cause tensions between the two countries.

“Even if they are troops from other countries, we will treat them the same way. I have made it very clear. This is not a personal issue, but a matter of our national security,” he added.

President Muizu said the government took action to find the quickest and most prudent solution to deal with the issue of Indian military personnel in the Maldives through deliberations.

He defended his agreement with India to deploy civilians rather than military personnel to operate helicopters and Dorniers, saying demands by the former Abdulla Yameen government for the withdrawal of Indian troops had not been successful because Indian personnel remained Stay in the country.

While both meetings were trying to achieve the same goals, President Muizu said results could be achieved through discussions and deliberations. “Everything can be achieved through discussion and deliberation. That’s what I believe in,” he said.

Meanwhile, amid tenuous relations with India, President Muizu has pursued a decidedly pro-China policy, starting with his visit to Beijing in January. During his visit to China, after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he signed 20 agreements to assist Maldives in infrastructure construction and signed a comprehensive strategic partnership.

China also announced $130 million in aid and pledged to send more Chinese tourists to the tourism-reliant Maldives.

After returning from China, President Muizu did not name any country. He said that the Maldives may be a small country, but “this does not give anyone permission to bully us.” The president terminated the hydrology agreement with India and has maintained that the Indian Ocean does not belong to any particular country.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)