{"id":37910,"date":"2023-10-28T03:17:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T21:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37910"},"modified":"2025-04-23T02:50:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T21:20:33","slug":"india-maldives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/india-maldives\/","title":{"rendered":"India-Maldives Bilateral Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in the News?<\/li>\n<li>India \u2013 Maldives Bilateral Relationship<\/li>\n<li>Maldives\u2019 Strategic Significance for India<\/li>\n<li>Political Relations<\/li>\n<li>Bilateral Trade<\/li>\n<li>Defence Cooperation<\/li>\n<li>Indian Community<\/li>\n<li>Tourism<\/li>\n<li>News Summary<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in the News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Maldives has started discussion with India for the removal of the latter&#8217;s military presence in the region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>India \u2013 Maldives Bilateral Relationship<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2023\/10\/28\/13\/9\/17\/653cbaa56ea81076e6536b79_OI.PNG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India and Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links and enjoy close, cordial and multi-dimensional relations.<\/li>\n<li><u>India was among the first to recognise Maldives after its independence in 1965<\/u> and to establish diplomatic relations with the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Maldives\u2019 Strategic Significance for India<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Maldives\u2019 proximity to the west coast of India (it is barely 70 nautical miles away from Minicoy).<\/li>\n<li>The country is situated at the hub of commercial sea-lanes running through the Indian Ocean.<\/li>\n<li>Also, it has the potential to allow a third nation\u2019s naval presence, for example China, in the area.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Political Relations<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Bilateral relations have been nurtured and strengthened by regular contacts at the highest levels.<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s relationship with the Maldives is free of any politically contentious issues.<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s prompt assistance during the 1988 coup attempt, led to development of trust and long-term and friendly bilateral relations with the Maldives.\n<ul>\n<li>Under Operation Cactus the Indian Armed Forces helped the Government of Maldives in the neutralization of the coup attempt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u2018India First\u2019 has been a stated policy of the Government of Maldives.<\/li>\n<li>On international issues Maldives has consistently supported India in multilateral fora, such as the UN, the Commonwealth, the NAM (Non-Alignment Movement) and the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Bilateral Trade<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India and Maldives signed a trade agreement in 1981, which provides for export of essential commodities.<\/li>\n<li>Growing from modest beginnings, India-Maldives bilateral trade in 2020 stood at US$ 213.91 million with trade balance heavily in favour of India.<\/li>\n<li><u>State Bank of India<\/u> has been playing a vital role in the economic development of the Maldives since 1974 by providing loan assistance for promotion of island resorts, export of marine products and business enterprises.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Defence Cooperation<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India provides the largest number of training opportunities for <u>Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF)<\/u>, meeting around 70% of their defence training requirements.<\/li>\n<li>A <u>Comprehensive Action Plan for Defence<\/u> was also signed in April 2016 to consolidate defence partnership.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Indian Community<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Indians are the second largest expatriate community in Maldives with an approximate strength of around 22,000.<\/li>\n<li>About 25% of Doctors and Teachers in Maldives are Indian nationals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tourism<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Tourism directly accounts for about quarter of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Maldives and indirectly for a much larger proportion of GDP.<\/li>\n<li><u>India remained the top market for Maldives tourism in 2022 dominating over 14% with 240,000 arrivals<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>News Summary<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Maldives has started discussion with India for the removal of the latter&#8217;s military presence in the region.<\/li>\n<li>Around 75 Indian military officials are currently based out of the country and maintain New Delhi-sponsored radar stations and surveillance aircraft.<\/li>\n<li>Indian warships help patrol Maldives\u2019 exclusive economic zone.<\/li>\n<li>Reason behind Discussions on Removal of India\u2019s Military Presence in Maldives:\n<ul>\n<li>The removal of foreign troops had been one of the key poll promises from Maldives\u2019 new President-elect Mohamed Muizzu.<\/li>\n<li>During a heated Presidential elections, he had accused incumbent Ibrahim Solih of allowing India unchecked sway over Maldives\u2019 internal affairs.<\/li>\n<li>He also claimed that the current leader had surrendered the country\u2019s sovereignty by allowing Indian troops to be stationed in the area.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Government of India\u2019s Response:\n<ul>\n<li>India is yet to officially address the calls for removal of troops and has merely voiced hope for constructive engagement with the incoming administration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What was the purpose of Operation Cactus?<\/h3>\n<p>India launched Operation Cactus to save the Maldivian government against a coup attempt at the request of Maldives\u2019 President in 1988.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) How is Maldives separated from India geographically?<\/h3>\n<p>The maritime boundary between the Maldives and India runs through the Eight Degree Channel. It separates the islands of Minicoy and Maldives.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/news\/world\/incoming-maldives-president-says-talks-underway-for-removal-of-indian-troops-11698412402566.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Incoming Maldives president says \u2018very successful\u2019 talks underway for removal of Indian troops<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/maldives-incoming-president-says-talks-started-with-india-troop-removal-2023-10-27\/#:~:text=COLOMBO%2C%20Oct%2027%20(Reuters),for%20influence%20in%20the%20region\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Reuters<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maldives has started discussion with India for the removal of the latter&#8217;s military presence in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}