Maldives’ President: We will not be intimidated

President of Maldives returns from China, emphasizing the Maldives’ independence amid escalating tensions with New Delhi.

As the country’s tension with New Delhi grows, the Maldives’ president declared on Saturday upon his return from China, where he signed a number of deals, that the Maldives, despite its small size, will not be intimidated.

Although New Delhi still views the Indian Ocean archipelago as falling under its purview, it has moved closer to China, the Maldives’ biggest external creditor. “We are not a nation that exists in another nation’s backyard.” Upon his return to Male on Saturday, President Mohamed Muizzu of the Maldives declared to the media, “We are an independent nation.”

He stated in the country’s Dhivehi language, “This territorial integrity policy is one that China respects,” the Mihaaru newspaper claimed late on Saturday. With Beijing and New Delhi tussling for influence, Muizzu took office in September after pledging to build “strong ties” with China and eject Indian troops.

“We may be small, but that doesn’t give you the license to bully us,” Muizzu remarked in a last message in English. The president also refuted any attempt to shift the balance of power in the region by substituting Chinese troops for Indian ones.

This week’s visit to China was Miuzzu’s first as president, and both countries released a joint statement on Thursday outlining the “broad consensus” that their leaders had established. “Infrastructure construction, medical care and health care, improvement of people’s livelihoods, new energy sources, agriculture, and marine environmental protection” were among the deals mentioned, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV.

“Longstanding China-Maldives relations are built upon an exemplary model of mutual respect,” according to Maldives’ administration.

Following these claims, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu asked India to withdraw its nearly 100-strong troop deployment by March 15, a top aide told reporters Sunday, as a row with New Delhi deepens.

The deadline was set during talks with Indian officials in the Maldives on Sunday, Muizzu’s Public Policy Secretary Abdulla Nazim Ibrahim said, a day after the president returned from China where he signed a raft of deals.

Source: AFP