Maldives inks defense agreement with China

MALÉ, Maldives: The Maldives has signed a “military assistance” deal with China after ordering Indian troops deployed in the small but strategically placed archipelago to leave, officials said on Tuesday.

Some 89 Indian military personnel in the country will be gone by May 10 after having been previously ordered out by pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu, who came to power last year on an antiIndian platform.

The Maldivian Defense Ministry said it had signed an “agreement on China’s provision of military assistance” with Beijing on Monday night, adding that the deal was “gratis,” or without payment or charge, but giving no further details.

The ministry also said the deal aimed to foster “stronger bilateral ties,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

India is suspicious of China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean and its influence in the Maldives, a chain of 1,192 tiny coral islands stretching about 800 kilometers (500 miles) across the equator, as well as in neighboring Sri Lanka.

Both South Asian island nations are strategically placed halfway along key east-west international shipping routes.

Relations between Malé and New Delhi have chilled since Muizzu won elections in September.

New Delhi considers the Indian Ocean archipelago to be within its sphere of influence, but the Maldives has shifted into the orbit of China, its largest external creditor.

Muizzu, who visited Beijing in

January where he signed a raft of infrastructure, energy, marine and agricultural deals, has denied seeking to redraw the regional balance by bringing in Chinese forces to replace Indian troops.

India said last week it was bolstering its naval forces on its “strategically important” Lakshadweep islands, about 130 km (80 miles) north of the Maldives.

The Indian naval unit based on the island of Minicoy will boost “operational surveillance” of the area, the navy said.

Addressing a public rally north of the capital on Monday, Muizzu vowed there would be no Indian troops on Maldivian soil after May 10, when they are expected to complete a withdrawal.

The Indians had been deployed to operate three reconnaissance aircraft New Delhi had gifted Male to patrol its vast maritime boundary.

India is expected to replace the military personnel with civilian staff to operate the aircraft, and the Maldivian Defense Ministry announced last month that Indian civilian crew had begun arriving in the atoll nation.

Last month, Malé allowed a controversial Chinese research ship to enter its waters in a sign of the nation’s diplomatic reorientation toward Beijing and away from India, its traditional benefactor.

China’s Xiang Yang Hong 3 arrived in Malé after being refused permission to dock by Sri Lanka following objections from India, which has labeled it a spy ship.

Beijing also gave 12 electric ambulances to the Maldives on Sunday, the Health Ministry said.