INDIA MALDIVES RELATIONS: Traveling and Tourism which is a very beautiful way of spending time with your loved ones and enjoying at different places around the country and the world.
People in India plan trips to various places out of the country like Dubai, Maldives, European countries etc. and these places are one of the prominent places where Indian tourists love to go and have some quality time together with their family and loved ones.
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Therefore it has contributed to the economy of these countries and the same applies to our country too. But as we live in a world where geopolitics plays a very important role, it has its impact on this Sector too. What type of relations countries have with each other impacts the economic factors and we can say that tourism is one of those factors.
So in this article we will be reading about one of those countries which attracts a lot of Indian tourists as it serves as a desired tourist location but due to the geopolitics scenario, things are changing and entering in a disturbing situation. The country about which we will be talking about is Maldives which is our neighboring Island country situated in the South Western region.
It is one of the major tourist destinations for Indians. It has a physical Geography which consists of coral reefs and atolls and is mainly under the exclusive economic zones. It is separated from the island of Minicoy which is the southernmost island of our union territory Lakshadweep by the 8 degree channel.
Why are we talking about it is an important question so to answer this question let’s focus on the current news and then evaluate it through understanding the history of India Maldives relations and the present scenario.
Why in news – INDIA MALDIVES RELATIONS?
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two day visit to the union territory of Lakshadweep and he has uploaded some pictures of himself enjoying at the island on his Twitter account but the tweet of Maldives Deputy minister of youth empowerment Mariam Shiuna made controversial and derogatory remarks on pm post.
Therefore it has become the headlines and being backlash by the Indian citizens and this is not one of the only reasons why India and Maldives relationship is in the news as few days back there was the election of a pro China president Mohammed Muizzu in Maldives where he propagated India out policy because he is building great relations with one of the countries with which India does not have cordial relations and that is none other than China. So this is one of the major reasons behind which we are discussing this news so let’s analyze India Maldives relations in this article.
India Maldives relation
Indian Maldives have had really cordial relations with each other since the past. India has played a very major role in maintaining security within Maldives. India was one of the few countries in the world which recognized Maldives independence and has been continuously supporting them to resolve their internal issues and to have stability in the country.
Both countries try to maintain their relations in various areas like military, cultural, strategic etc. Indian and Maldives have also signed various treaties and conduct various operations and exercises together on an annual basis.
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Bilateral treaties – INDIA MALDIVES
Indian Maldives of signed various treaties to maintain their Maritime trade.
The 1976 Maritime treaty was signed by both the countries in the year 1976 to decide their Maritime boundaries to facilitate the trade relations and smoothen the process.
1988 comprehensive agreement
This was a trade agreement between the two countries to provide the exports of essential commodities.
Economic relations
Tourism is one of the major economic cooperation between the two countries Maldives is the major tourist destination for Indians. And India continues to be the major market for Maldives since the last few years. Around 1,00,915 Indian tourists visited Maldives last year. And the sea lanes of communication(SLOCs) from where 80% of India’s imports and 50%of India’s external trade takes place is in the neighborhood of Maldives therefore making it a crucial point.
Defense partnership
Indian Maldives conduct various joint military exercises like Dosti , Ekatha And Operation Shield and Ekuverin.
Operation cactus
This operation took place in the year 1988 in which the Indian armed forces helped to prevent a coup in Maldives and to maintain the security and stability of the country as Maldives is a neighboring country and they must be in stable condition to have stability in the whole region.
Operation Neer
In this operation India supplied drinking water to Maldives to help it cope up with the water crisis it was suffering from in the year 2014.
Operations Sanjeevani
During the operation India supplied 6.2 tons of medicine to Maldives to help the country in the difficult times of covid-19.
Infrastructure development
India is helping in building an airport in Maldives at Hanimaadhoo and Gan island. National College for Policing and Law Enforcement (NCPLE) was made to provide law enforcement officers to Maldives to provide them the right knowledge and assistance to form right strategic policies and programs.
And various other initiatives have also been taken by the Indian government in Maldives.
After all these relations still India-Maldives relations are not going in the right track in the present time due to various reasons and in which the major one is about the China factor so let’s talk about it.
The China factor and INDIA MALDIVES Relations
China Has been increasing its involvement in Maldives. In which China is primarily focusing on its personal interest and is also working on building some projects in the island of the country and increasing its involvement day by day.
It is increasing its influence by the debt financing which China tried in Sri Lanka also. And the current president of Maldives Mohammed Muizzu is a pro China candidate and China is providing a lot of help to Maldives and creating various projects within the country with somehow has affected the countries relation with India and is of a major issue at this point of time. China is also increasing its investment in Maldives because of its strings of Pearl initiative through which its trying to connect various countries and build a Maritime trade route for China’s Navy in the Indian Ocean. Maldives is one of those countries which has a major role to play in the strings of Pearl.
India stand in the whole situation
India’s always been resolute to maintain good relations with its neighboring countries and Maldives is one of those neighboring countries that helps in tackling any kind of disturbance in the Indian Ocean region and to fight back issues like drug trafficking ,terrorism etc. India’s firm on its stand of neighborhood first policy and therefore tries to maintain a peaceful atmosphere around its neighboring countries and also works to maintain stability in these countries like Maldives.
But India is vigilant to and therefore has its counter actions fight back China’s activities like this strings of Pearl initiative in return of that India has started the Diamond Necklace strategy to make significant military and strategic relations with countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea ,Thailand, Singapore etc to counter China’s strings of Pearl strategy.
India is also trying to develop its tourism sector by initiating development on infrastructure in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep to present it as an alternative of Maldives as we know that Minicoy and Maldives are divided by the 8 degree channel and are very close to each other and therefore provide somehow the same environment so Lakshadweep could be an ideal place for tourism from around the world If some infrastructure development is done in the area as it is being done.
Conclusion – INDIA MALDIVES Relations
As we know that we are living in a world where relations are changing on a constant basis . And the geopolitics is so sensitive at this point of time that we can’t predict about many things that are going around us so having good relations is a very important factor in the contemporary Times and India is one of those countries which try to maintain good relations with its neighbors and therefore Maldives is one of the major neighboring country with whom India tries to have good relations and try to maintain stability in the subcontinent even after the whole disturbance which is being made due to the excess involvement of China in Maldives, the statements coming from the high level ministers of Maldives.
India is firm on its stand to maintain good relations with the Island country. But India is also well aware about the steps it needs to take to fight back in terms of emergency or Problems and therefore it is also trying to build infrastructure in its own union territory and the people of the country are also supporting through the whole process.
