Firmly oppose external interference: China backs Maldives amid row with India

'China firmly supports the Maldives in upholding its national sovereignty, independence and national dignity, respects and supports the Maldives' exploration of a development path that suits its national conditions,' Beijing said.

New Delhi: Amid unease in New Delhi over Maldives' drift towards Beijing, China took a not-so-subtle dig at India, not only pledging its ‘firm’ support to the sovereignty of the Maldives but also asserting its ‘resolute’ opposition to “interference by external forces in the internal affairs” of the archipelago.

While the derogatory comments by some politicians of the Maldives about India and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi triggered a row on social media platforms, the Indian Ocean country’s new president, Mohamed Muizzu, agreed with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that the two nations would jointly respond to “major challenges, including traditional and non-traditional security threats”.

A meeting between Muizzu and Xi in Beijing on Wednesday saw both leaders elevating the ties between the two nations to a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership. They also witnessed the officials of the two nations signing as many as 20 pacts to step up bilateral cooperation.

China “firmly supports (the) Maldives' efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, independence and national dignity, respects and supports (the) Maldives in exploring a development path that is in line with its national conditions, and resolutely opposes interference by the external forces in the internal affairs of (the) Maldives”, according to a joint statement issued by the two sides after Xi-Muizzu meeting.

The words in the joint statement appeared to be aimed at conveying Beijing’s agreement with the claim of the Muizzu Government in Malé that its recent move to make India withdraw its military personnel from the Maldives was intended to safeguard the sovereignty, independence and national dignity of the island nation.

While campaigning for the presidential polls in the Maldives in September 2023, Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) and its ally former president Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s People’s Party of Maldives (PPM) accused India of interfering in the internal affairs of the Island Ocean nation.

The joint statement appeared to be a move by China to lend credence to the allegations against India.

China has long been trying to elbow out India from the Maldives as part of its bid to build “a string of pearls” of strategic assets around India and expand its own geopolitical influence over the smaller countries in the Indian Ocean region.

Muizzu’s campaign for the presidential polls saw him opposing and promising to reverse his predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s ‘India First’ policy of treating India as a preferred partner for the Maldives and lessening its reliance on China. He had vowed to start the process of removing all military personnel of India from Maldives immediately after taking oath.

India has 77 military personnel in the Maldives. They were deployed to operate and fly two Dornier aircraft and a helicopter gifted by India to the Maldives for emergency evacuation of people from the islands. The Muizzu Government already formally requested New Delhi to withdraw the military personnel. It also moved to make India stop hydrographic surveys in the territorial waters of the Maldives.

Muizzu took over as the president of the Maldives on November 17 after winning the elections held in two rounds in September 2023. Though most of his predecessors visited New Delhi first before embarking on one to Beijing, he chose to do it the other way around, lending credence to widespread speculation in India about the drift of the Maldives towards China.

He commenced his visit to China a day after a row erupted over some derogatory remarks posted by some lawmakers and deputy ministers of the Maldives on X about the prime minister of India. The comments were made in response to some posts with pictures and videos of Modi during his visit to Lakshadweep off the Malabar Coast of India. To contain the row, Muizzu suspended three of his deputy ministers for making comments about Modi.