INSTABILITY
IN MALDIVES AND ITS IMPACT ON INDIA- MALDIVE RELATIONSHIP
India has once again found itself in middle of the crisis in
its neighborhood. This time it is Maldives. Maldives
is a south Asian island country located in Indian ocean in Arabian sea. A
political crisis has arised in Maldives after President Abdulla Yameen decided
to disobey the supreme court order to release 9 political prisoners. On
February 5, 2018 he has declared the state of emergency and ordered the arrest
of two supreme court judges. Former President Mohammad Nasheed said that Yameen
does not have enough support from the lawmakers.
The
relationship between Male i.e. capital of Maldives and Beijing i.e. capital of
China are at its peak now. The Maldives is important to India but not enough to
pull India into an unnecessary face-off with China. Maldives’s once strong
relationship with India has been strained by China’s increasing economic
influence. India’s intervention in neighborhood i.e. in Nepal’s new
constitution was also not good. The chance is that India will drive Male
towards China’s sphere of influence which India does not want to happen. India
should maintain its political pressure on Male while keeping the options for
dialogue open. In case of Maldives, instead of leadership change, India should look at more systematic and
institutional change as its key national interest. The Maldives have grown into
a bigger headache for Indian foreign policy. A mere leadership change would not
necessarily change this.
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