Everything you need to know about what’s happening between India and the Maldives right now.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This was Akshay Kumar holidaying in the Maldives, but then why did he call out public figures
00:05from the island country just a few days later?
00:07And Salman Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, why did they start pitching for Indian tourist
00:12destinations?
00:13While the recent controversy started after Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted his pictures
00:20from Lakshadweep Islands, the relationship between India and its neighbour to the south-west,
00:25Maldives, actually goes back decades.
00:27Plus, the island country was of strategic importance to India because of its location
00:32in the commercial sea lanes in the Indian Ocean.
00:34But first, let's see what happened in January 2024.
00:37PM Modi was in Lakshadweep to inaugurate developmental projects worth Rs. 1150 crore.
00:45He posted pictures from his visit, chilling on a beach and snorkelling.
00:49One of his tweets said, for those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep
00:54has to be on your list.
00:56And then, according to news reports, three Maldivian deputy ministers posted tweets against
01:01this display.
01:03One called the PM a clown and a puppet, while another said, while I wish success for India's
01:08tourism, targeting the Maldives so explicitly isn't diplomatic.
01:12The Maldivian foreign ministry put out a statement saying, these opinions are personal and do
01:17not represent the views of the government of Maldives.
01:20The tweets were deleted and the ministers suspended.
01:23But a boycott Maldives trend surfaced on Indian Twitter after the controversy.
01:27While celebrities didn't join the boycott movement, they encouraged people to explore
01:32Indian islands.
01:43Indian tourists accounted for the highest number of visitors in Maldives in 2023.
01:48Indians didn't need a visa to go there and it was a popular tourist and honeymoon destination
01:52among them.
01:53India and the Maldives shared friendly bilateral ties for decades.
01:57About 27,000 Indians lived there, with many Indians providing teaching and medical services
02:02in the Maldives.
02:03Other Indian workers included engineers, construction workers, technicians and hospitality workers.
02:09A high point in the India-Maldives relationship came in 1988.
02:13A coup to remove the then Maldivian president, Mamoon Abdul Gayoom, was afoot.
02:18The Indian government responded to Gayoom's SOS messages and the Indian military was successful
02:23in helping him retain power.
02:25The fact that the Indian troops returned home after the operation built trust among the
02:30Maldivians that India wasn't going to assert dominance over them.
02:33Since then, India helped train the Maldivian National Defence Force and assisted in developmental
02:38projects.
02:39In 2018, India announced a $1.4 billion financial assistance package for the Maldives, which
02:46would be used for their general budget and infrastructural projects.
02:49But more recently, the relationship between the two countries soured ever since Mohammed
02:54Moise Zou became president in November 2023.
02:56Moise Zou was seen as a pro-China leader who rode on the India Out campaign to come to
03:02power.
03:03This campaign was primarily against the presence of the Indian military in the island nation.
03:07And what were Indian troops doing in the Maldives?
03:10Operating aircraft which India had donated to the Maldives for sea surveillance and medical
03:15evacuations.
03:16Besides that, India was helping the Maldives build a naval dockyard.
03:20Critics of this partnership expressed concern over the presence of the Indian military and
03:24naval vessels at the dockyard for coming years.
03:27While distancing from India worked in favour of Moise Zou, backed by public sentiment to
03:32protect Maldivian sovereignty, the previous government led by President Ibrahim Mohamed
03:37Soli kept an India-first approach, with India offering security partnership, developmental
03:42assistance and help during the COVID pandemic.
03:45The new president Moise Zou changed that within two months of assuming power.
03:49Maldivian presidents usually made their first official visit to India, but Moise Zou first
03:54went to Turkey, followed by China.
03:56The Maldives government also formally asked India to remove its troops.
04:00And the debate around tourism was the most recent controversy regarding India's relations
04:04with the Maldives.