During the campaign election in the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu criticised India, and after he got power in November, the relationship between India and the Maldives went downhill.
After criticising India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned the Maldives and introduced a new place in India named Lakshadweep. People recently visited Lakshadweep and stated that this place is better than the Maldives. Because of this, Indians stopped visiting the Maldives, and their economy went downhill. On this matter, Maldives’s ex-president Ibrahim Mohamed suggested to Muizzu that he stop being stubborn and mend fences with neighbours.
In a media conference in Male’ to talk for the parliamentary candidates of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Solih stated that to reconstruct the reconstruct the debt, Muizzu wants to talk with India, and he also added that Indian loans have nothing to do with the financial challenges of the Maldives. According to the official report, the Maldives have debts of MVR 18 billion from China and MVR 8 billion from India, which have 25 years to repay.
The ex-president of the Maldives also stated that, however, he is confident that their neighbours will help. They must stop being stubborn and seek dialogue. There are many parties that can help them. But Muizzu doesn’t want to compromise. He feels the government is only starting to understand the situation now. He also accused the Maldives government of deceiving the people of the Maldives and restarting the projects of the MDP government.
It is always known that Maldives’s president’s first overseas trip was always to India; however, it has been four months since Muizzu got the power, but he has yet to visit India. According to the media report in January, the Maldives president went to China. Seeing this behaviour, it is really difficult to rebuild the relationship between India and the Maldives.
