It’ll take time to rebuild ties with the Maldives
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's recently concluded trip to the Maldives, aimed at breaking the logjam in bilateral ties, shows that New Delhi has been considering a slight re-orientation of its neighbourhood policy. While there is no saying at this point how the changes will play out, the Modi Government deserves credit for being flexible in its approach and responsive to the concerns of a small but strategically important neighbour. In recent months, India's relationship with the Maldives has been through a rough patch: Following the arrest of Opposition leader and former President Mohamed Nasheed in February, on what is considered to be trumped-up charges of sedition in a politically motivated case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not include the archipelago in his Indian Ocean tour in March. later, his envoy to the UN also raised the issue of political dissent in the Maldives being threatened. Nasheed has been a staunch friend of India's and New Delhi couldn't possibly be a silent bystander to his apparent victimisation. Not only would this have reflected poorly on India's regional powerhouse status, it would have also sent out the wrong message from the world's largest democracy. And so, India took a strong and principled stand on the issue — which, initially, bore fruit. The Government of President Abdullah Yameen offered to challenge Nasheed's conviction, and eventually his sentence was commuted to house arrest. However, in August, he was put behind bars again.
Also, around the same time, the Maldivian Parliament passed a law allowing foreign ownership of its islands. This, India rightly worried, would let China, which has already made strategic inroads into Maldives, convert the island-nation into a satellite state. Though President Yameen did his bit to allay India's concerns, the fact is that the law is still on the books and can be misused. And as if all this wasn't enough, Maldives has invited China to develop the international airport at Male — a project that was initially being implemented by India's infrastructure giant, GMR. In fact, it was the biggest foreign investment project in the Maldives until the Mohamed Wahid regime, that succeeded the Nasheed administration, threw out GMR overnight.
Clearly, India's tough stance wasn't helping; and at the end of the day, New Delhi's best bet was to accept ground realities (China has eaten into India's sphere of influence) and re-calibrate its strategies. Hence, it is interesting to note that the Nasheed issue found no mention in official statements, even though it is difficult to believe that the matter was not discussed at all. India also did not officially take note of an October 6 UN verdict that favoured Nasheed and said that his trial had been unfair. Moreover, Ms Swaraj did not meet any senior opposition leader in Male while New Delhi downplayed President Yameen's comments that Maldives would not tolerate ‘foreign intervention’ in the country.