“India and Maldives exchanged eight important agreement covering debt repayment, fisheries, digital payments, and a new Line of Credit worth Rs. 4850 crore, during the recent visit.”
-Times of India Report (July 26, 2025)
Recent Visit by the Indian Prime Minister: Bilateral Relationship on the Rise
India and Maldives are historical partners by default, sharing a wide range of ethnic, linguistic, cultural, traditional, geographical, and religious ties between themselves. The recent visit by the present Prime Minister of India, Sh. Narendra Modi and his participation in the 60th Independence Day celebrations of Maldives as a Guest of Honour, was truly a transformative shift in the bilateral relations, especially after the taking over the reigns of the Maldives administration by Muizzu, as the Head of the State. Strained ties, marked specifically by the ‘India Out’ sloganeering and active governing apparatus following the same slogan, marked a long-time low in the otherwise fine-tuned bonding between the two nations.
Derogatory focused social media campaigns and narrative warfare that followed in the peace time, only added up to the tensions between both the nations. Maldives is the most important connecting dot in the ‘neighbourhood first’ policy, whereby it also receives a large number of tourist inflow from India, however, the same did reduce after last years’ virtual confrontation. But before delving into the Indian- Maldives praxis of relationship, it is pertinent to study the history of the bilateral relationship.
India and Maldives: History Re-visited
Maldives is a geographically and strategically important country for India, situated in the Indian Ocean surrounded by Laccadive Sea and Arabian Sea, with a number of atolls forming the whole nation. Defense and strategically quintessential atolls such as the Male Atoll (Male is also the capital of Maldives), Huvadhoo Atoll, Kolhumadulu Atoll, etc. India and Maldives began their diplomatic relationship in the early 1960’s and India was among the first nations to recognise the independence of Maldives, which formed the foundational corner stone of the long standing relationship that both the nations were to share between each other in the future.
However, it was only in the year 1988 when India heralded Operation Cactus to prevent a coup attempt. According to the information provided by the High Commission of India at Male, “Maldives proximity to the west coast of India and its situation at the hub of commercial sea-lanes running through Indian Ocean imbues it with significant strategic importance to India”.
It must be noted that Maldives also lies at a significant juncture of the Indian Ocean Region and therefore becomes very important for India, especially for her inter-regional and maritime security. During the 2004 disastrous Tsunami, India was one of the first respondents to control the disaster that was wrecked in Maldives, even though India was also struggling for her own security and disaster relief measures.
Apart from this, India has always shown her willingness to work at close quarters with the establishment of Maldives, because even India knows that if Maldives and India stand together then no force in the world can threaten the Indian Ocean region. India has at a number of times, leveraged Line of Credits for the benefit of Maldives and has always aided the country in all its times of distress, aiding in developmental, human resources, and infrastructural development, likewise.
During the early 2000s, both the countries also collaborated and benefited from being mutual partners at the SAARC forum, which is solely focused on disaster reduction, disaster relief measures, economic cooperation, and regional security apart from other aids handed out from time to time. India has also at the time of Covid-19 handed out timely vaccines to Maldives and also became Maldives first-respondent in a number of cases. This is also true in the case of measles vaccine that was provided to Maldives at its time of need.
India had at many a times, also aided Maldives in its water crisis, code-named, ‘Operation Neer’. However, there have been times, whereby Maldivian establishment has grown very close to the Chinese side, especially during the time of President Yameen, and the present establishment as well. However, there have been times, whereby Maldives has been a very close partner of India. China in any case, is going to use Maldives, like it has used many small economies through its techniques such as- Salami Slicing, Debt Trapping, Carrot and Stick Policy, Military Expansion, etc.
India and Maldives have a number of areas where their interests converge such as economic and financial arenas (India’s rolling over of $50 million worth Treasury Bills, and increase of 50% assistance by India to Maldives in its financial development), signing of vision document such as the Comprehensive Economic and Maritime Security Partnership, et al. Apart from this, India has steadily aided the Maldivian side in infrastructure development via the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP) and the Thilamale Bridge apart from many High Impact Community Development Projects across the whole of the nation.
India and Maldives have across different time periods, also collaborated on maritime security and defense areas which have aided in development of Male’s military strategy, future ready for the upcoming times, most importantly via the trilateral ‘Dost’ exercise with another nation, Sri Lanka. Additionally, there are cultural, people-to-people, climate-related and sustainable development ties, which have heightened the levels of engagement between both the nations.
Parting Note: The Road Ahead
It is no doubt that China has now been trying since long, to increase its foothold in Male, and has been trying the same desperately over some time.China has yet again, used its strategy of debt entrapment and given out loans to Maldives in maritime and defense sectors, with a number of Chinese military personnel present on the island nation, to look after Chinese interests. Under the influence of Chinese directions, Maldives has also ended the hydrography agreement with India, raising eyebrows and maritime concerns.
The same directions also resulted in the tourism footfall reduction from India to Male, which did hurt its economy. However the recent turn of events has highlighted that Maldives has realised how important India is to its economy.India is not only aiding Maldives since such a long time just to fulfill its own interests but also genuinely cares about a sister economy in the Indian Ocean. This genuine concern can only be shown by India, which has no malafide intentions towards Maldives. Having understood this, its now time for India and Maldives to move forward, and summit the scales of human as well as economic development together, keeping in mind the international rules-based order as well as principles of global constitutionalism.
