PM Modis Maldives go to, a turnaround in ties

Also learn: Ties in area again in focus with PM’s go to to Maldives

Although Mohamed Muizzu used the ‘India out’ plank — taking off on a marketing campaign by former President Abdulla Yameen — for his profitable presidential bid in September 2023, there was a notable thaw within the Maldives’s India ties inside months, seen within the assembly of the leaders of each nations, on the sidelines of the UN COP 28 local weather summit in Dubai in December 2023, the place they agreed to bolster financial partnership and people-to-people ties.  

Downs and ups

However, early 2024 noticed a speedy decline within the relationship once more, with junior Maldivian ministers making derogatory remarks towards PM Modi, in connection along with his Lakshadweep go to, and a shrill, apparently well-coordinated ‘Boycott Maldives’ marketing campaign that dominated Indian social media quickly after, threatening the nation’s tourism-reliant economic system.

Returning from a five-day go to to China in January 2024, President Muizzu advised native media that the Maldives could also be a small island nation, however that doesn’t enable others to “bully” the nation and that the Maldives “isn’t in anybody’s yard”.  In March 2024, Mr. Muizzu stated no Indian army personnel, not even these in civilian clothes, can be current in his nation after May 10, 2024. By early May final 12 months, India totally pulled out its troops from the Maldives, assembly the deadline set by President Muizzu, with a compromise of changing them with technical personnel.

Economic help

Subsequently, ties noticed an enchancment, paving means for President Muizzu’s state go to to India in October 2024, even because the island nation was combating its debt burden and widening fiscal deficit that some feared may push it in the direction of default.

After the 2 leaders met in New Delhi, India signed a vital forex swap settlement — obtainable till 2027 — with the Maldives for $750 million, to assist the island nation tide over its present international forex crunch. The two nations additionally agreed on a “imaginative and prescient assertion” for a “complete financial and maritime safety partnership” going ahead. In May 2025, India rolled over a $50 million-treasury invoice to help the nation bolster its reserves and stabilise its economic system.  

Today, Indian flags have been put up throughout Male, sources primarily based within the capital metropolis advised The Hindu on Thursday, to welcome the Indian PM, scheduled to reach Friday [July 25, 2025] morning from the United Kingdom, amid appreciable social media criticism of the Maldivian authorities from detractors. Mr. Modi is the primary Head of State to go to the Maldives since President Muizzu assumed workplace in November 2023.  

‘Hard work’

 “It’s a query of working exhausting at a relationship,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated, in a particular media briefing on July 22, 2025, referring to the optimistic shift India-Maldives ties. Observing that “there’ll at all times be occasions that can impression or attempt to intrude on the connection”, he pointed to the “type of consideration” that has been paid to the connection and together with on the highest ranges. “We have continued to work at it …we have now additionally been in very shut discussions with our companions within the Maldives to offer readability and assurances about what it’s that we need to do bilaterally, and I believe the result’s there for all to see,” he advised reporters in New Delhi.

Describing the joint imaginative and prescient for an ‘India-Maldives complete financial and maritime safety partnership’ because the “guiding framework” for bilateral ties, Mr. Misri stated New Delhi has seen almost half a dozen ministerial-level visits from the Maldives within the first six months of this 12 months. During Mr. Modi’s go to a set of agreements throughout sectors is predicted. The two sides are prone to agree on the phrases of reference for the Free Trade Agreement that’s presently underneath negotiation. Further, agreements in new areas of cooperation, together with renewable vitality, fisheries, digital infrastructure are to be firmed up.

Prior to Mr. Modi, former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif participated as Guests of Honour within the Maldives’s Independence Day occasions in 2015 and 2017 respectively.