Muizzu's Delhi visit: Opposition mocks Maldives president over 'U-turn' on India

Male: As Maldives President Muhammad Muizzu visits India, the main opposition on Tuesday took a swipe at his “naive and inexperienced” administration and said it has now realised that diplomacy cannot be conducted through “lies and deceit.”

Former president Mohamed Nasheed echoed the sentiment, terming India and Maldives as natural partners while referring to Muizzu's meetings with the Indian leadership in New Delhi.

Muizzu is on his first state visit to India from October 6 to 10.

Pro-China Muizzu had assumed office last November riding on the back of an aggressive 'India Out' campaign. Within hours of taking oath, he had asked India to repatriate its military personnel from the three platforms in the archipelagic nation.

After mutual agreement, close to 90 personnel were repatriated by May 10 this year.

The relations between the two South Asian nations further turned sour when two Maldivian ministers poked fun after Modi posted photographs of Lakshadweep Islands in January this year. Indians tourists announced a mass boycott of Maldives leading to slide to number six spot in mid-2024 from the number one spot in post-Covid years.

Abdulla Shahid, the president of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), expressed happiness to see “the age-old ties between the Maldives-India being revived” and thanked India for remaining “steadfast and resolute with the Maldivian people.

Posting a long note on his official X handle, Shahid said that he was encouraged to see that the projects and initiatives launched during President Ibrahim Solih – considered pro-India – have come to fruition and are being continued and went on to list many of them.

Then came the scathing comment: “What we are seeing is the current administration coming to the realisation that international relations cannot be conducted based on lies and deceit. What we are seeing is the Administration's naivety and inexperience in diplomacy.”

“Hoping that this current trajectory in the relationship with our closest neighbour, friend, and partner, continues,” he concluded.

On the other hand, Nasheed – who is termed as the architect of the India-Maldives robust relationship during his term – applauded the turn of events.

“India & Maldives are natural partners with so much in common: music, films, food, culture, history and geography. We should always remain friends. So happy to see things fall into place & the relationship fixed. Congratulations to PM Modi and Pres Dr Muiz (sic),” Nasheed, who is currently the Secretary General of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), posted on X late on Monday night.

As the Maldives is grappling with a serious economic downturn, India extended a vital budgetary support to the Maldives government with the rollover of a USD 50 million Treasury Bill for another year.

In New Delhi, Muizzu met President Draupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar among others.

A 'vision document' issued after the bilateral talks between Modi and Muizzu agreed that India will support Maldives with defence platforms and assets to augment capabilities of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).

Scores of Maldivian X users also drew attention to Muizzu's u-turn while some of them had praise for the development.

News portal Adhadhu.com said, “As Muizzu continues his state visit to India, social media users have been flooding various platforms with posts made by senior government officials while they were in the opposition.”

Scores of social media users also recalled Muizzu's anti-India statements and posted screenshots of them with sarcastic messages. “It is crystal clear now that #IndiaOut was a SHAMELESS LIE used by @Mmuizzu to deceive us into voting for him and to SPREAD LIES about @ibusolih's presidency,” said one user on X.