‘Maldives govt must make stronger statement to repair ties with India,’ says Maldives oppn leader

Maldives Opposition leader and chairperson of the Maldivian Democratic Party, Fayyaz Ismail, on Wednesday (Jan 10) said that the country’s government should make a stronger statement against disparaging remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indians.

‘Tougher stand’

In a recent interview, Maldives’ opposition leader said that the government should take a “tougher stand” against the racist remarks directed towards Indians and PM Modi to repair the strained ties between the two countries.

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“I personally believe the government should take a tougher stand on that because this goes beyond government to government. Now, because of the ease of accessibility of social media, this has reached to a lot of Indians and to a lot of Maldivians. And as arguments take over from both side, there has lot of insults coming back and forth,” said Ismail, as quoted by ANI.

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He noted that the incumbent government needs to make more efforts to show that there was no intention on the part of the government.

“These were just isolated individual opinions of these people who, unfortunately, were given positions in the government. So that needs to be clearly shown to the Indians, to the Maldivians, and to the entire world at large,” said Ismail.

Last week, the Indian PM posted images of himself enjoyingon the beach in the country’s union territory of Lakshadweep, which not only garnered some offensive and racist remarks from people on social media but also sparked an unexpected diplomatic row between New Delhi and Male.

Among those who wrote racist remarks against Indians and PM Modi on social media were ministers from the currentMaldiviangovernment.

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Male has since suspended three deputy ministers over the remarks and distanced itself from the comments saying they do not represent the country’s official position.

China factor

During the Wednesday interview, the opposition leader also admitted that his country currently has stronger ties with China. Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, who came into power after the elections late last year, isin the midst of a visit to Beijing.Amid ‘boycott Maldives’ calls in India he has appealed to China to send more tourists to the island nation.

Speaking about the Maldivian president’s visit, Ismail said, “Well, first of all, there is no doubt that the current government has a more favourable or stronger relation with China. The Maldives has always maintained friendly relations with all countries, except for Israel.”

He added, “So with the change in the political spectrum in Maldives, with the change in political parties, there will always be shifts in the intensity of engagement with different partners, obviously. And in this case, you're seeing more robust engagement with China rather than India.”

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Ismail also spoke about how Maldives had been maintaining an India-first policy but the foreign policy under the new government has shifted.

“Until now, we have always, all parties in the Maldives maintained an India-first policy, and that is also very crucial for our security and stability as well. But this government may have different approaches to its foreign policy, and maintaining good relations with China is not an issue that any party in the Maldives would also want,” said Ismail, as quoted by ANI.

(With inputs from agencies)