New Delhi: Even though India had imposed a ban on export of onions since the end of last year, it has selectively relaxed the ban for certain countries, including the Maldives, because of the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan and soaring prices of the crop because of shortage of supply.
In December 2023, India, which is the world’s second-largest onion exporter, imposed a ban on the staple kitchen vegetable until March 2024, citing escalating domestic prices and the risk of shortages after drought and bad weather hit production. Consequently, neighbouring countries experienced a notable increase in onion prices. New Delhi then reportedly decided to relax the ban selectively for six countries – Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Bahrain.
Following this, local media in the Maldives reported that the Indian Ocean archipelago nation has been omitted from the list of countries for which the onion export ban has been partially lifted. This was seen in the context of the ongoing chill in diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Male after new President Mohamed Muizzu adopted an anti-India and pro-China foreign policy.
"Maldives has been omitted from the list of countries granted special permit for onion export by the Indian government," the Edition.mv news website reported early on Wednesday.
Approximately 90 per cent of the onions consumed in the Maldives are sourced from India. Recent reports indicate that the agreement with India, facilitating the import of various food items, including onions at a discounted rate, is set to expire in March.
To reduce the Maldives' heavy reliance on India for essential food supplies, President Muizzu announced in January this year that a new agreement has been established with Turkey. Furthermore, he noted that arrangements have been finalised to import onions, potatoes, and eggs from other nations as well.
However, following the publication of the report, an official of the Indian High Commission in the Maldives said that "onion export to Maldives from India has always been conducted under a separate bilateral agreement, and that it will continue without interruption".
"This is facilitated under the existing trade agreement between India and Maldives which allocates quotas to Maldives as per national requirements to ensure smooth supply of selected essential commodities," the Editon.mv quoted the Indian High Commission official as saying in a follow-up report. These essential commodities include rice, sugar, wheat flour, onions, potatoes, eggs, dal, stone aggregates and sand.
The agreement was last renewed in July 2021 and India expanded the quotas for export of the selected essential commodities to Maldives until March this year. "The export of these items is further exempted from any existing or future restriction or prohibition," the Indian High Commission official said.
The Indian High Commission official's assurance came even as ties between India and the Maldives have been on the downswing ever since pro-China Muizzu assumed office as President last year. Muizzu had won last year's presidential election on a pronounced anti-India plank.
He ran an 'India Out' campaign in which he called for the withdrawal of some Indian military personnel present in his country. These personnel, numbering less than 100, are primarily involved in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief work in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. However, after assuming office, Muizzu made a formal request to India to withdraw these personnel. It has now been reportedly agreed that these military personnel will be replaced by civilian Indian personnel.
In December last year, the Maldives decided not to renew a hydrography agreement with India citing national security concerns and the safeguarding of sensitive information. The hydrographic survey agreement was signed on June 8, 2019, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Maldives. Under the agreement, India was allowed to conduct a comprehensive study of the island nation’s territorial waters, which includes reefs, lagoons, coastlines, ocean currents and tide levels.
And then again, the Maldives decided to allow a Chinese vessel to enter its territorial waters ostensibly to do research work. This decision came despite pressure from the Indian government and concerns raised by various quarters about the vessel being a "spy vessel". India has strongly been protesting the repeated visits by Chinese vessels to the waters of the south Indian Ocean, a region New Delhi considers to be under its sphere of influence.
Then, in early January this year, a political row broke out between India and the Maldives after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the union territory of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea and promoted it on social media as an exciting tourism destination. Though Modi did not mention any other country in his comments, some Maldivian politicians took it as the Lakshadweep being showcased as a rival to the tourism industry in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. They made disparaging remarks against the Prime Minister and racist comments against Indians in general.
This sparked a social media backlash from Indians, including entertainment world celebrities and sports stars. Many opposition leaders and tourism industry bodies in the Maldives also criticised the Muizzu government for this. Following this, three junior ministers in the Maldives government were suspended.
Soon after the row, Muizzu went on a nearly week-long visit to China. This is a break from the practice followed by his three immediate democratically elected predecessors - Ibrahim Solih, Abdulla Yameen and Mohamed Nasheed - who had made India the destination of their first state visit after assuming office. In fact, after assuming office in November last year, Muizzu made Turkey the destination of his first state visit.
Muizzu further upped the ante against New Delhi by targeting the health sector. Till now, hospitals empanelled under Aasandha, the Maldives’ universal health insurance scheme, for overseas treatment of Maldivian patients were restricted to just India and Sri Lanka, the majority of them in India. The largest amount of money disbursed by Aasandha to foreign hospitals went to Indian hospitals. Over Rs 7.5 billion has been disbursed to hospitals in India over the past 10 years.
Now, following directives issued by Muizzu, the state-owned Aasandha Company, which acts as a third-party claims administrator, has started work to expand the scope of overseas treatment for Maldivians beyond India and Sri Lanka. The company is now in talks with Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both countries are leading medical care providers but at a relatively higher cost.
As part of New Delhi’s Neighbourhood First Policy, the Maldives is strategically significant to India because of its location in the Indian Ocean. India and the Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links steeped in antiquity and enjoy close, cordial and multi-dimensional relations. However, regime instability in the Maldives since 2008 has posed significant challenges to the India-Maldives relationship, particularly in the political and strategic spheres.
Although India continues to be an important partner of the Maldives, New Delhi cannot afford to be complacent over its position and must remain attentive to the developments in the Maldives. India must play a key role within the Indo-Pacific security space to ensure regional security in South Asia and surrounding maritime boundaries. China’s strategic footprint in India’s neighbourhood has increased. The Maldives has emerged as an important 'pearl' in China's 'String of Pearls' construct in South Asia.
Despite all these, India has decided to stick to the agreement of exporting essential commodities to the Maldives. It remains to be seen whether this onion diplomacy can bring about a thaw in the relationship.
