On Maldives, be cautious

Yet, India must maintain close ties with Male

The clarification from the Maldivian Government that it will not allow recent amendments to its land law to be manipulated by foreign powers to set up military bases, is welcome. New Delhi had expressed its concerns in this regard, particularly to ensure that the archipelago does not get caught in the middle of an India-China power tussle in the Indian Ocean.

Traditionally, the Maldives has remained in India's sphere of influence. However, in recent years, China has been aggressively courting Male (much like it has also been wooing other smaller countries in the region) and the latter has responded warmly. China has made investments worth millions of dollars in the Maldives and thousands of Chinese tourists vacation in the country's pristine sand beaches every year. At the same time, India's diplomatic clout has somewhat eroded. The 2011 ousting of pro-India President Mohamed Nasheed and the 2012 GMR episode marked a low point in bilateral relations.

Three years since, ties have improved: The Government of President Abdullah Yameen has sought to allay India's concerns that it isn't unabashedly pro-China, while the Narendra Modi administration has made clear that Male is an old friend and will be an integral part of its re-invigorated Indian Ocean policy that includes Mauritius, Seychelles and Sri lanka. It is against this backdrop that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar recently travelled to the Maldives to complete his South Asia yatra that had commenced in March. His regional trip earlier in the year had been followed by Mr Modi's Indian Ocean tour, but both the Prime Minister and his top diplomat had skipped the Maldives because of political turbulence in Male at that time. The Yameen Government had arrested Mr Nasheed and there were fears that the Maldives's nascent democracy would be derailed. The situation hasn't been fully resolved but it has become amiable with the Yameen regime commuting Mr Nasheed's 13-year jail term to house arrest. 

This gave New Delhi an opening of sorts to resume its engagement with Male. But only days later, on July 22, the Maldivian Parliament amended its land law to allow foreign ownership. The manner in which the law was rushed through Parliament, with MPs getting less than 24 hours to study the changes, raised suspicions. Also, the two main conditions enshrined in the law to allow for foreign ownership clearly favour China: A foreign entity needs to invest more than a billion dollars, and at least 70 per cent of the land that it wants to purchase has to be reclaimed land. For China, which invests in large infrastructure projects, a billion dollars is pocket change. Also, the Asian giant is an expert in land reclamation technologies and, therefore, will have no problem lapping up huge chunks of Maldivian territory. On paper, such purchases will only be for commercial purposes, but China's record of using business transactions for strategic purposes has long been a cause of concern in India and elsewhere.