Forgive and forget? Jaishankar to meet Muizzu on Maldives trip next week

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar will call on Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu when he visits the country next week for what will be the first high-level bilateral visit by the Indian side to the important Indian Ocean neighbour.

According to a Times of India report, as part of his visit, Jaishankar will also hold talks with his counterpart Moosa Zameer on the ongoing efforts to carry forward the development cooperation.

This will be the first ministerial visit from New Delhi to Malé since the new Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s government took charge in November of last year.

According to a Wion report, Jaishankar is expected to be in the country from August 9 onwards for two to three days.

Zameer was in India before the Indian elections for the first bilateral visit by the Maldives and his visit was followed by Muizzu’s own first visit to India as president for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inauguration in June.

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Jaishankar’s visit is significant as Delhi-Malé relations gain momentum after an initial period of strain in ties.

After assuming office, President Muizzu continued the ‘anti-India’ rhetoric from his campaign, which centered on the ‘India Out’ movement and the removal of Indian troops from the Maldives. He also broke with tradition by visiting China instead of making his first official visit to India.

In December 2023, the Maldives announced it would not renew its Hydrographic Survey agreement with India.

Tensions between New Delhi and Male escalated when three Maldivian deputy ministers made derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in response to his photos from a visit to Lakshadweep.

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The ministers were later suspended. Their comments, however, sparked an uproar among Indians on social media. Many people declared that they were boycotting Maldives as a holiday destination, with some even claiming to have cancelled their scheduled trips to the archipelago nation.

However, a reconciliatory shift in Maldives-India relations is apparent following previous tensions.

In June, Muizzu attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third consecutive inauguration, signaling improved diplomatic ties.

The Maldives, in recent months, has found itself grappling with an economic crisis of alarming proportions and the situation has prompted significant discussion about the future direction of the country’s foreign policy, particularly in relation to India.

Seen as a pro-China leader, President Mohamed Muizzu’s administration has been facing immense economic challenges, as a result of which he seems to have changed his tactics in the past few months. In an interview to a local media outlet in March, he called India Maldives’ “closest ally”.

In an official Independence Day function in the Maldives last month, Muizzu made a special mention of India and thanked New Delhi for supporting the island nation in easing its debt repayment after India rolled over a $50 million loan to the island nation. He also revealed ongoing talks for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UK and expressed hopes for a similar deal with India.

He said, to address local US dollar shortages, the Maldives government is negotiating currency swap agreements with Beijing and also New Delhi.

With inputs from agencies