Male: China and the Maldives are in talks for a bilateral visit to Beijing by Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, a source in Male said. If it works out, Muizzu will become the first democratically elected Maldivian president to visit China before travelling to India.
In a break from the past, defying successive Maldivian presidents who chose India as their first port of call, Muizzu had first visited Turkiye as president, before landing in Dubai for the COP28 summit.
In fact, every Maldivian president since the dawn of multiparty democracy in 2008 in the strategically located Indian Ocean country, including virulently anti-India leaders like Mohamed Waheed in 2012 and Abdulla Yameen 2 years later, had first visited India, a fact often cited by Indian authorities as symbolic of India’s “pre eminent” position in the Maldives and the latter’s stated India First policy.
However, China will only be the third country that the newly elected president will travel to. Muizzu’s visit to Turkiye was seen also by some as signalling to both India and China that the Maldives will not remain dependent on either of them for its development objectives.
Buoyed perhaps by the exit of Muizzu’s pro-India predecessor Ibrahim Solih, China seems to have lost no time in inviting Muizzu, whose aides have denied repeatedly the president’s characterisation in the media as a China-leaning leader. It’s not clear yet if Muizzu has received a similar invite from India, which will follow closely the outcome of Muizzu’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.