Maldives seeks debt relief from India after insisting on troop withdrawal

Following his anti-India remarks, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizou struck a conciliatory tone, saying India would remain the Maldives’ “closest ally” and urging New Delhi to provide debt relief to the archipelago nation.

As of the end of last year, the Maldives owed India approximately $400.9 million.

The pro-China Maldives leader has taken a tough stance against India since being sworn in as president in November, demanding within hours that India Indian military personnel operating three aviation platforms will be repatriated from his country Before May 10th.

In his first interview with local media since taking office on Thursday, Muizou 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 said in a report that India will continue to be the closest ally of the Maldives and stressed that there is no doubt about this. The report contained excerpts from an interview Muizou gave to its Dhivehi sister publication Mihaaru.

Muizu’s comments praising India came after the first batch of Indian military personnel was scheduled to leave the island nation this month. On May 10, Muizul 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 shipping lanes across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) gives it an important position. strategic importance.

In the interview, Muizu urged India to adopt debt relief measures for 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.

“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,” Muizou added.

Muizul’s conciliatory remarks towards India come ahead of 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.

Muizu expressed hope that India would provide “debt relief measures to facilitate the repayment of these loans” and said he had expressed gratitude to the Indian government for its contribution.

During the previous regime led by pro-India leader Ibrahim Mohammed Solih, the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) received loans totaling $1.4 million (MIR 22 million).

“As of the end of last year, the Maldives owed India MDR 6.2 billion,” he said.

At the current exchange rate of 1 MVR equivalent to 16 US dollars, this is approximately US$400.9 million.

“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 accelerate the process,” he said, referring to talks with the COP28 summit in Dubai in December 2023. Discussion by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Dubai.

“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.

Responding to a question about Indian military personnel, Muizul said it was the “only contentious issue” with India over the presence of Indian troops in the Maldives, adding that India had also accepted the fact and agreed to withdraw its military personnel.

“It’s not good practice to think that aid provided by one country to another is useless,” he said, claiming he had not taken any actions or remarks that could cause tension 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.

Muizu said that the Indian government has taken action to find the fastest and most prudent solution to deal with the issue of Indian troops stationed in the Maldives through deliberations.

He defended his agreement with India to deploy civilians rather than military personnel to fly helicopters and Dornier aircraft, saying demands by the former Abdulla Yameen government for the withdrawal of Indian troops were unsuccessful because Indian personnel Still in the Maldives.

While both cases are trying to achieve the same goal, Muizou said results can be achieved through discussion and deliberation. “Everything can be achieved through discussion and deliberation. That’s what I believe in,” he said.

Meanwhile, amid tenuous relations with India, Muizou has pursued a decidedly pro-China policy since 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, 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.”

Muizou also terminated the hydrology agreement with India and has maintained that the Indian Ocean does not belong to any particular country.