New Delhi: Unlike the practice followed by his three immediate predecessors, new Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has decided to make his first state visit to Saudi Arabia and not to India.
All three of his immediate predecessors – Ibrahim Solih, Abdulla Yameen and Mohamed Nasheed – who came to power after the country’s current constitution came into effect in 2008 made it a point to make their first state visit after assuming office to India. It was a sign of the importance and priority the Maldives gives to India, its biggest and most influential neighbour.
According to media reports, Muizzu will be traveling to Saudi Arabia on Thursday on a three-day official visit. The visit comes after the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia decided to sign a trade agreement with the Maldives.
Muizzu’s decision should, however, not surprise observers as he known for his pro-China stance and had won the presidential election with an ‘India Out’ campaign. The ‘India Out’ campaign was aimed at sparking hatred by creating scepticism about India's investments in the Maldives, the defence partnerships between the two sides, and India’s net security provisions. A key point of Muizzu’s campaign was to oust a few Indian defence personnel present in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation to carry out humanitarian assistance work and operate defence equipment and aircraft provided by India. Immediately after assuming office, Muizzu made an official request to India to withdraw its defence personnel from the Maldives.
Muizzu was the joint candidate of the People’s National Congress (PNC) and the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) for the presidential election. Initially, former President Abdulla Yameen of the PPM, known for his pro-China stance, was nominated as the joint candidate of the PNC and the PPM. But since Yameen was serving an 11-year jail term due to a money laundering case, he became ineligible to contest the election. As a result, Muizzu of the PNC was nominated as the joint PNC-PPM candidate.
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 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.
Ties between India and the Maldives deteriorated significantly when Yameen served as the President between 2013 and 2018. It was only after Solih came to power in 2018 that ties between New Delhi and Male improved. However, it merits mention that even pro-China Yameen had made his first state visit after assuming office in 2013 to India. Both Nasheed, who came to power in 2008, and Solih, who was elected in 2018, followed an ‘India First’ foreign policy.
According to JK Tripathi, former Indian diplomat who served in the Indian High Commission in the Maldives, Muizzu’s decision to make his first state visit to Saudi Arabia is to promote the perception that his foreign policy would be neither pro-China nor pro-India but “pro-Maldives”.
At a victory rally following his election, Muizzu described the foreign policy of the new administration as “pro-Maldives.” He said that he would foster relations with all countries that respect the policy. “I hope all countries will respect our autonomy, and accept that we have the right to protect our independence, the same as them,” he was quoted as saying. Tripathi said that another reason Muizzu’s decision to make his first state visit to Saudi Arabia is that the Gulf kingdom is the custodian of the two holy mosques.
“The people of the Maldives are predominantly Sunni Muslim and this visit may be aimed at improving Muizzu’s public perception,” he said. “Also, Saudi Arabia is a major petroleum exporting country. His real intentions will become clear only after some time. Will he visit New Delhi first or Beijing?”
To find out why Muizzu is not following the practice of his predecessors to make the first state visit after assuming office to India, ETV Bharat contacted the Maldives High Commission in New Delhi, However, there was no response till the time of filing of this report.
