New Delhi: Even though the Maldives is not bankrupt as media reports would have you believe, Male’ external debt has increased to nearly $4.038 billion, and domestic debt is roughly in line with the debt crisis numbers looming in 2026. It has a large amount of leverage. Muiz was awarded $5.6 billion in assets in the Maldives, according to official figures.
Mr. Muiz, who is openly anti-India, has called for debt forgiveness from his close friend Xi Jinping and Islamic emirates in the Middle East, but China’s $1.3 billion in debt is due to foreign debt, including sovereign debt maturing in 2019. It accounts for nearly 30% of the total. 2026. Muiz has appealed to Turkey, China and other countries for financial support, but that is unlikely to come as the island nation is in a full-blown economic crisis.
The Chinese surveillance vessel Xiangyanghong 03 was scheduled to enter Male Port on February 8 to resume operations, but Maldivian authorities are still waiting. The spy ship is currently located 20 hours from Male in the southern Indian Ocean, far outside the EEZ of the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India.
For the record, Chinese surveillance vessels are only permitted to use Male Port for OTR purposes and do not undertake any survey or seabed mapping within the Maldives EEZ or beyond.
India plans to replace its military personnel in one Maldivian-flagged ALH helicopter by the end of this month or early March, but the Modi government is taking a wait-and-see attitude and is not prepared to assist the Maldives in case of a humanitarian disaster. It’s well equipped.
Rather than risking its own political survival to intensify Muiz’s anti-India stance, the Modi government has ordered the Indian Navy to expand the airstrip in the Agatti Islands in the neighboring Lakshadweep and Minicoy archipelago and build a new one. He gave the green light to approve the construction of an air base. Minicoy Islands. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh commissioned the first squadron of MH-60 R Sikorsky helicopters in Kochi on March 4 and 5, after which they arrived at Minicoy aboard two Indian carrier strike groups. It is scheduled to head to the Maldives to commission a new base called INS Jatayu.
Although Muiz’s anti-India political stance is aimed at the upcoming Majlis elections in April, the public’s mood toward China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to develop infrastructure in the Maldives, is lukewarm at best. This comes as a number of countries, including Pakistan, Kenya and Tanzania, struggle with Belt and Road debt after receiving high-interest loans from the Export-Import Bank of China.
