{"id":38637,"date":"2023-12-16T07:10:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T01:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=38637"},"modified":"2025-04-23T12:57:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T07:27:25","slug":"maldives-pact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/maldives-pact\/","title":{"rendered":"Maldives to not renew 2019 water survey pact with India"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>Hydrographic survey pact<\/li>\n<li>What is the hydrographic survey?<\/li>\n<li>Hydrographic survey pact between India and Maldives<\/li>\n<li>Why does Maldives want to end the pact?<\/li>\n<li>Does India have such water survey pacts with other countries as well?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Maldives government has decided to not renew an agreement with India that allowed India to conduct hydrographic surveys in Maldivian waters.<\/li>\n<li>The agreement was signed in 2019 during PM Modi\u2019s visit to the islands, when President Ibrahim Solih was in power.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the hydrographic survey?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>About\n<ul>\n<li>Hydrographic surveys are carried out by ships, which use methods such as sonar to understand the various features of a water body.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Aim of such surveys\n<ul>\n<li>According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), these surveys help:\n<ul>\n<li>map out water depth,<\/li>\n<li>the shape of the seafloor and coastline,<\/li>\n<li>the location of possible obstructions, and<\/li>\n<li>physical features of water bodies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>These surveys are done to ensure the efficiency and safety of maritime transportation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Scope for international co-operation in hydrography\n<ul>\n<li>A UN study said that <u>approximately 50% of coastal states have no hydrographic capability and another 25% have only limited capabilities<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>Only the remaining 25%, including India, have adequate hydrographic capabilities.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, there is immense scope for international co-operation in hydrography.<\/li>\n<li>This is particularly true in Asia and Africa, where 36% and 64% of the waters respectively, are yet to be surveyed systematically.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Hydrographic survey pact between India and Maldives<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Background\n<ul>\n<li>PM Modi travelled to the Maldives for a State Visit in June 2019, the first overseas visit of his second term.<\/li>\n<li>Various MoUs were signed during the visit, including one for Cooperation in the Field of Hydrography between the Indian Navy and the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What was planned as part of this pact?\n<ul>\n<li>The survey is in line with <u>India\u2019s policy of supporting the Maldives to set up Hydrographic facilities within the MNDF<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>So far, three joint hydrographic surveys have been undertaken \u2013 in 2021, 2022, and 2023.\n<ul>\n<li>The Indian Naval Ship (INS) Darshak carried out the first Joint Hydrographic survey in February and March of 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>An area of 944 square km was effectively surveyed \u2013 some of these areas had been last surveyed as far ago as in 1853.<\/li>\n<li>The surveys were done to generate updated Navigational Charts\/ Electronic Navigational Charts of the areas, which would help sectors such as Tourism, Fisheries, Agriculture, etc.<\/li>\n<li>The ship was to also carry out tidal observations to enable accurate tidal predictions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s support to Maldives to set up Hydrographic facilities within the MNDF\n<ul>\n<li>The hydrographic equipment was presented to the MNDF in March 2021.<\/li>\n<li>More equipment was gifted to MNDF by the Chief of Naval Staff in April 2022 for the Maldives Hydrographic office.<\/li>\n<li>Training was also imparted to MNDF personnel on the use of survey equipment.\n<ul>\n<li>India said it would train more MNDF personnel at its Hydrographic Institute in Goa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why does Maldives want to end the pact?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Change in regimes following the elections in October this year\n<ul>\n<li>President Solih of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), who was in power from 2018 to 2023, was seen as being more favourable to India.<\/li>\n<li>But his successor Mohamed Muizzu of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) is being seen as more pro-China.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>India Out campaign\n<ul>\n<li>In 2020, an \u2018India Out\u2019 campaign began in Maldives, alleging that New Delhi had sent a large military contingent to the Maldives.<\/li>\n<li>During the election campaign, Muizzu said agreements with foreign countries must be terminated unless their presence was beneficial to the Maldives.<\/li>\n<li>This was seen as a reference to India.\n<ul>\n<li>The Indian military is known to operate <u>two helicopters and assist in search and rescue operations<\/u> for people stranded or facing calamities at sea.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Does India have such water survey pacts with other countries as well?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2021, India\u2019s oldest Hydrographic Survey ship, INS Sandhayak, was decommissioned.<\/li>\n<li>In its 40 years of service, it undertook more than 200 major hydrographic surveys along the Western and Eastern coasts of the Indian peninsula, and the Andaman Sea.<\/li>\n<li>It also undertook surveys in neighbouring countries including Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.<\/li>\n<li>Indian survey ships have assisted Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Maldives, Oman, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Tanzania in the past.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is &#8220;India Out&#8221; campaign?<\/h3>\n<p>The &#8220;India Out&#8221; campaign is a political campaign in the Maldives that taps into concerns about Indian domination. The campaign was led by the opposition, led by former president Abdulla Yameen, and targeted President Ibrahim Solih.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is hydrography?<\/h3>\n<p>Hydrography is the science of measuring and describing the physical features of the Earth&#8217;s navigable surface and coastal areas. It involves studying the physical features of water bodies, such as oceans, seas, and lakes.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/everyday-explainers\/maldives-survey-pact-india-hydrographic-explained-9069657\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Maldives to not renew 2019 water survey pact with India: What are hydrographic surveys?<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hydrographic surveys are carried out to understand the various features of a water body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38637","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\/38637","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=38637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}