The Indian message was clear. That India worked closely with the government that the Maldivian people elected and will keep an open door for all shades of political opinion in the country.
In a significant step forward in bilateral political relations, after cementing bilateral economic cooperation, visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has endorsed the candidature of Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid for the presidency of the UN General Assembly, in elections due late next year. During a three-day visit, Secretary Shringla also met leaders of all political parties, including the PPM-PNC combine identified with jailed former President, Abdulla Yameen, indicating that India had no preferences in the nation’s internal politics.
“With his vast diplomatic experience and leadership qualities, Foreign Minister Shahid has the best credentials to preside over the General Assembly in these tumultuous times. His presidency will also provide greater visibility to the Maldives,” Secretary Shringla said, in his brief opening remarks at talks in the Maldivian Foreign Ministry, during his three-day visit.
Shringla noted how Shahid’s term “will coincide with our membership of the UN Security Council for 2021-22,” and how India looked “forward to working closely with Maldives in the United Nations.” In this regard, Secretary Shringla was reiterating through a publicised statement the Indian commitment made by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishanker during a recent webinar with counterpart Shahid.
In back-to-back meetings, Shringla called on President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Parliament Speaker and ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) chief, Mohammed Nasheed, and met with a host of ministers, some separately and others in a group. The Indian intention seemed to be for the top diplomat to meet with as many Maldivian leaders as possible through his tight schedule.
In this regard, Secretary Shringla, with his past diplomatic experience in handling Maldives, also met with leaders of most political parties in the Indian Ocean archipelago-nation. The Yameen-centric alliance of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and the People’s National Congress (PNC), was represented, among others, by former President, Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik, ex-Vice President Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, whom Yameen got impeached after he fled for his life and who is now leading Yameen’s legal team in pending court cases.
The Indian official also met with retired army colonel Mohammed Nazim, whom Yameen had sacked as Defence Minister and arrested for a purported plot to eliminate him. At the talks, Nazim represented his Jumhooree Party’s founder, Gasim Ibrahim, who was in self-quarantine after overseas travel. Secretary Shringla also called on former Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Maldivian President for 30 long years (1978-2008), and now leading a truncated Maumoon Reforms Movement (MRM), a political party, and acknowledged the latter’s contributions to bilateral ties.
Through the meetings, the Indian message was clear. That India worked closely with the government that the Maldivian people elected and will keep an open door for all shades of political opinion in the country. In this context, the meeting with Team Yameen was significant as it came about even after the group’s recent ‘India Out’ campaign. In turn, this underlined the point that New Delhi held no grudges against domestic adversaries of ruling parties in friendly nations and their governments.
Incidentally, the ‘India Out’ campaign seems to have fizzled out, especially after the PPM-PNC combine’s strident silence on the Solih Government signing the ‘Framework Agreement’ for military cooperation with the US and commending positively on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent visit to the country. This has exposed to their own cadres, the Yameen camp’s duplicity in foreign and security matters, by targeting only the Indian neighbour for no justifiable reason.
Likewise, India’s ‘open door’ policy became clearer in the context of Shringla meeting with Economic Development Minister Fayyaz Ismail and Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer, two of the Ministers in President Solih’s team, whom Speaker Nasheed wanted removed for alleged corruption. The message was that it was not India’s job to evaluate the functioning of local Ministers, which was the job of President Solih and the Maldivian people.
According to an official statement, in talks with President Solih, Secretary Shringla briefed him on the satisfactory status of implementation of decisions at the former’s high-level interactions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2018 and June 2019. The President expressed deep appreciation for the Indian assistance for dealing with COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the $250 million budget support, extended in September 2020.
“We deeply appreciate the government of President Solih for its ‘India First’ foreign policy,” Shringla said in his statement at the Foreign Ministry meeting. “This is reciprocated in full measure by our ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy in which Maldives enjoys a very special and central place,” he added on the occasion. With regard to Covid management, he also complimented recently-inducted Tourism Minister, Dr Abdullah Mausoom, on increased tourist arrivals in the midst of global recovery.
During his meeting with Speaker Nasheed, the Foreign Secretary also acknowledged his long-standing support to the strengthening bilateral ties. Calling on Defence Minister Mariya Didi, Secretary Shringla recalled the excellent state of bilateral defence cooperation including joint EEZ surveillance, joint military exercises, and HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief). He also met with Interior Minister Sheikh Imran Abdulla, who also heads the religion-centric Adhaalath Party.
Secretary Shringla reviewed bilateral relations with his counterpart Abdul Ghafoor, where they discussed respective national approaches to deal with the challenges of the COVID-19- pandemic. Ghafoor conveyed his government’s appreciation for India’s substantial assistance to Maldives to his country for tiding over the epidemic’s effects. They also positively assessed the robust growth in the diverse planks of our bilateral ties, including development partnership, health cooperation, connectivity, trade, and economic relations.
During the visit, the two sides signed four Memoranda of Understanding (MoU), including the $100-million grant for the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP), considered the largest development project in Maldives till date, featuring a 6.7-km long Thil-Male Bridge, connecting capital Male, Villimale, Gulhifalhu international port and Thilaffushi islands. India is also extending another $400 million credit for the project, on easy and transparent terms.
The two nations also signed an MoU on cooperation in sports and youth affairs, aimed at facilitating training and experience for athletes and coaches. In an outdoor event, at the capital’s National Stadium, Secretary Shringla formally handed over children’s parks in 67 islands, as chosen by the Maldivian Government. According to reports, as many as 70 local parliamentarians participated in the event.
The other two MoUs in the total of four related two projects planned under the High Impact Community Development Scheme, namely, the setting up of an agricultural research centre in Haa Dhaalu Atoll’s Hanimaadhoo and developing a drug detoxification centre in Addu City’s Hulhudhoo. The MoUs grant MVR 1.7 million for the agricultural centre project and MVR 7.9 million for the detox centre.
“Honouring the democratic traditions cherished by both countries, the underlying principles of India’s development cooperation of transparency, competitive pricing and ownership of the host country will be adhered to in implementation of the GMCP project,” Shringla said, speaking at the stadium function. “India’s development projects in Maldives are demand-driven and will involve the Maldivian government at all stages. The tendering process and award of contract will also be done by the Government of Maldives,” he reiterated, without naming nations (read: China) that acted unilaterally sans transparency in such matters.
Even the choice of the agriculture and detox centres are of great importance to the nation’s population, underscoring the Indian point that the host-government alone should choose the projects for which overseas aid is needed. In his term as President (2008-12), Speaker Nasheed had sought Israeli technical assistance for saline water agriculture. Given the traditional anti-Israeli stance of the Islamic world at the time, and also the domestic opposition to his leadership otherwise, the invitation for Israelis became one more of the several ‘religion-centred’ charges against his Government, leading to his exit, one-and-half years before his five-year term ended.
Likewise, the detoxication centre has a great social appeal in Maldives, as drug menace is huge in the country, starting with the capital, thanks also owing to lack of housing space, broken marriages and families and other developmental pressures. If the Thila-Male Bridge aims at decongesting capital Male, which accounts for 40 per cent of the nation’s half-a-million population (2020 figures), the detox centre will be of help to drug-addicts and parents, who travel to Sri Lanka and India (Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai) for professional help.
Needless to say, when the physical infrastructure is ready, New Delhi will have to support human infrastructure needs of the two centres, through training Maldivian professionals, both in India and more so on the ground. Simultaneously, the Maldivian government should also consider setting up counselling centres for married persons especially, given the high rate of divorce in the country. In turn, this is also among the major reasons for teenage youth, both boys and girls, hitting the streets for want of space and care in their broken homes, and hitting drugs, too — and becoming members of infamous ‘Male gangs,’ alongside — all for want of choice and care. India, if approached, can provide both financial and technical assistance in such matters, too.
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N. Sathiya Moorthy is a policy analyst and commentator based in Chennai.
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