What is the issue?
- Maldives Foreign Minister and its President's special envoy to India, Mohamed Asim visited India.
- The visit gains significance amidst the recently strained relationship between India and Maldives.
What was the recent tussle?
- Maldives recently signed its Free Trade Agreement with China.
- This is Maldives’s first FTA with any country and China’s second FTA with any country in South Asia after Pakistan.
- The trade pact would open Maldives to Chinese goods and tourists in unprecedented numbers.
- India was certainly concerned with this, due to the possible increased Chinese military presence in the island nation.
- The Maldivian President had earlier promised that Maldives would be an integral link in China’s Belt and Road Initiative
- Besides, the Maldives government recently suspended three members of a local body.
- This was notably on charges of meeting the Indian Ambassador without seeking prior approval.
- However, responding to these, India articulated its hope that as a friendly neighbour, Maldives would be sensitive to India’s concerns in keeping with its “India first policy”.
What are the outcomes of the visit?
- The visit was aimed at overcoming the “trust deficit” between the two countries and reset the strained relations.
- Maldives foreign minister reiterated Maldives' “India first” policy.
- The emphasis is an attempt to allay India's concerns over Maldives' growing proximity towards Beijing.
- It was conveyed that Maldives would stay sensitive to India’s concerns over peace and security in the Indian Ocean region.
- The talks also involved strengthening the bilateral relationship keeping in mind its ‘India first’ policy and our ‘Neighbourhood first’ policy.
What are the implications?
- The visit by a foreign minister may have cleared some of the bitterness between the two countries.
- However, India can certainly not continue to take its predominant power in South Asia for granted.
- It cannot be indifferent to the developments in the smaller neighbours, as they have wider geopolitical ramifications.
- Both countries have to learn to deal with each others proximity and acknowledge that there are no alternative but to make amends in ties.
Source: The Indian Express
