Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 5: Within days after a technical team from India arrived in Maldives to replace military personnel operating three aviation platforms as president Mohamed Muizzu wanted, the Maldivian Defence Ministry on Tuesday announced signing a military pact with China.
Maldives’s Minister of Defence Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon and Major General Zhang Baoqun, Deputy Director at China’s Office for International Military Cooperation, signed an agreement on “China’s provision of military assistance gratis to the Republic of Maldives, fostering stronger bilateral ties,” the Maldivian Defence Ministry said. The two sides also held bilateral talks on military cooperation.
The President Muizzu meanwhile also stepped up his anti-India rhetoric reaffirming that no Indian military personnel, not even those in civilian clothing, would be present inside his country after May 10, showing reorientation of its foreign policy towards China and away from its traditional benefactor India.
The Maldivian defence Ministry’s post on social media platform ‘X’ did not mention details of what the agreement entails. Further, China donated 12 green ambulances to the Maldives’s Health Ministry on Monday. The development is in line with the two countries agreeing to “elevate” China-Maldives relations to a “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership” during Mr Muizzu’s five-day state visit to China in January this year.
Maldivian Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer posted on X, “Delighted to host the China EXIM Bank delegation, and the Chinese military delegation for lunch today. We had fruitful discussions on bolstering our economic and security partnerships between the two countries. Looking forward to continued collaboration.”
President Muizzu’s statement comes less than a week after an Indian civilian team reached the Maldives to take charge of one of the three aviation platforms in the island nation, well ahead of the March 10 deadline agreed by the two nations for the withdrawal of Indian military personnel.
Addressing the Baa atoll Eydhafushi residential community during his tour across the atoll, the President stated that due to his government’s success in expelling Indian troops from the country, people who spread false rumours, are attempting to twist the situation.
“That these people [Indian military] are not departing, that they are returning after changing their uniforms into civilian clothing. We must not indulge such thoughts that instil doubts in our hearts and spread lies,” Mr Muizzu, widely regarded as a China-backed leader, said. “There will be no Indian troops in the country come May 10. Not in uniform and not in civilian clothing. The Indian military will not be residing in this country in any form of clothing. I state this with confidence,” he said, on a day when his country signed an agreement with China to receive free military aid.
Earlier last month, after a high-level meeting in Delhi on February 2 between the two sides, the Maldivian foreign ministry said India would replace its military personnel operating the three aviation platforms in the Maldives by May 10 and the first phase of the process would be completed by March 10. There are 88 military personnel manning the three Indian platforms that have been providing humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of the Maldives for the last few years using two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft.
Mr Muizzu rode to power last year on an anti-India stance and within hours of taking oath demanded India to remove its personnel from the strategically located archipelago in the Indian Ocean. India had agreed to remove their troops from Maldives under the condition that a number of their civilians equivalent to the military presence are brought to operate the aircraft. The local media reports also said Maldives had successfully tied up with Sri Lanka to run flights for medical evacuation last week, further indicating that it is bent on removing all Indian troops in whichever category.
The Maldives’ proximity to India, barely 70 nautical miles from the island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep and 300 nautical miles from the mainland’s western coast, and its location at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) gives it significant strategic importance. The Maldives has been India’s key maritime neighbour in the IOR and it occupies a special place in its initiatives such as SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Neighbourhood First Policy.’
Only last month, a contentious Chinese research ship had reached the Maldives in the latest sign of the archipelago’s move towards Beijing. Local residents said they had spotted China’s Xiang Yang Hong 3 at the Thilafushi industrial port near the capital Male. The 100-metre-long (328-foot) vessel was at an anchorage near capital city of Male. The Maldives’ pro-Beijing government said earlier the vessel was docking for a port call to rotate crew and take on supplies, on the condition that it would not conduct “research” while in its territorial waters.
India is suspicious of China’s increasing presence in the Indian Ocean and its influence in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, which are strategically placed halfway along key east-west international shipping routes. Relations between Male and New Delhi have chilled since pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu won elections last year.