Pro-China Maldives Govt Severs Another Pact with India

Maldives will not renew an agreement with India to conduct hydrographic surveys, announced its pro-China president Mohamed Muizzu. Maldives plans to acquire the facilities and machines required to do the exercise by itself, President Mohamed Muizzu added.

The development follows the signing of a defence cooperation agreement between China and Maldives under which China will provide free military assistance to Maldives to foster “stronger” bilateral ties.

India-Maldives ties have suffered a setback ever since Mr Muizzu, who is blindly pro-China, assumed office in November 2023. One of his first steps was to demand India to withdraw all its troops.

Speaking at a ceremony at one of the islands that he was visiting on Monday, Muizzu said, the Maldives Ministry of Defence is making efforts to obtain the facilities required for conducting the hydrographic surveys by the country itself.

Maldives’ former administration, led by then President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, had signed an agreement with the Indian government to conduct hydrographic surveys of Maldives’ underwater features.

“We decided not to renew the agreement entered into with the Indian government to scan and acquire all insights into our underwater bodies. All these underwater details are our property, our heritage,” Mr Muizzu said and claimed the Maldives earlier needed to purchase all such maps and survey data from India.

The most recent hydrographic survey carried out in collaboration with India’s Hydrography Office was launched in January 2021 as part of the agreement signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 during his visit to Maldives.