{"id":14070,"date":"2021-02-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/24-02-2021\/agreements-between-india-and-maldives\/"},"modified":"2021-02-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T00:00:00","slug":"agreements-between-india-and-maldives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/24-02-2021\/agreements-between-india-and-maldives","title":{"rendered":"Agreements between India and Maldives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News:<\/strong> Recently, India-Maldives Foreign Ministers meet concluded significant security and economic agreements.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Outcomes of the Meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Security Agreements<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$50 million defence Line of Credit agreement: <\/strong>The Finance Ministry of Maldives and the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India agreed over a 50 million USD Line of Credit for Defence Sector.<\/li>\n<li>Development of <strong>Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF) Naval Base:<\/strong> It will strengthen Maldivian Coast Guard capability and facilitate regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief efforts.<\/li>\n<li>Development of\u00a0 <strong>Maldives National Defence Force Coast Guard Harbour &#038; Dockyard at SIFAVARU<\/strong>: It will deepen Security Engagement between both nations.\n<ul>\n<li>India will support the development of harbour, communications resources and radar services.<\/li>\n<li>India will also provide training for Maldivian Coast Guard Personnel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Public Broadcasting:<\/strong> MOU for the association between <strong>Prasar Bharati<\/strong> and official <strong>State Media of the Maldives, PSM<\/strong> was pushed forward.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Covidiplomacy:<\/strong> Progress of ongoing COVID crisis, including India&#8217;s ongoing assistance to the Maldives in its post-COVID economic recovery period was also accessed.\n<ul>\n<li>India also handed over one lakh additional doses of COVID vaccine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sustainable Urban Development, Road Infrastructure and Housing: <\/strong>Project execution contract for the <strong>construction of roads in Addu<\/strong>, the second-largest urban area in the Maldives in terms of population, was also signed by S. Jaishankar.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism: <\/strong>Both countries agreed to help each other in curbing increasing radicalisation and terrorism.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cooperation at UNGA: <\/strong>India is proposing Maldives for the Presidency of the 76th session of the UNGA.<\/li>\n<li><strong>National College of Policing and Law Enforcement Studies: <\/strong>India agreed to extend its hand for training police personnel via institutional linkages and infrastructure creation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:735px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align:top; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>Indo-Maldive Relations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Importance of the Maldives for India:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/676989562580148500_image.png\" style=\"height:288px; width:400px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Strategic Location: <\/strong>The Maldives is situated in the Indian Ocean.\n<ul>\n<li>The Equator passes through it.<\/li>\n<li>It sits very near to the <strong>busy trade route<\/strong> which is vital for <strong>East Asian Energy Security<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Huge Scope of Cooperation:<\/strong> Both countries can cooperate on Hydrography, Health, Passenger and Cargo services by sea, Capacity building in customs and Civil service training.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gujral Doctrine and Neighbourhood Policy:<\/strong> The Maldives is India\u2019s neighbour. Any instability is bound to impact India and its security.\n<ul>\n<li>Hence, Gujral Doctrine advocated asymmetric help be extended to neighbours by India.<\/li>\n<li>Also, Maldives is one of the key beneficiaries of India\u2019s Neighbourhood First.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pivot role in SAGAR Initiative of India: <\/strong>Maldives is key to India\u2019s ambition to become a regional maritime security provider.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Anti-Piracy and Anti-Terror operations<\/strong> can also be carried out with Maldives&#8217;s help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Operation Cactus and Past Agreements: <\/strong>India-Maldives relations have always been good since Maldivian independence in 1966.\n<ul>\n<li>India thwarted a coup attempt in 1984 by <strong>Operation Cactus<\/strong> at the request of Maldivian government.<\/li>\n<li>Even in the past, India has extended multiple Line of Credits and both have cooperated under the banner of SAARC, UN, Commonwealth.<\/li>\n<li>Joint military exercise is \u2018<strong>Exercise Ekuverin<\/strong>\u2019.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Operation Neer<\/strong> was initiated by the Indian government to help the Maldives after a major fire broke out at the Male Water and Sewerage Company.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India\u2019s Claim over Permanent Seat of UNSC:<\/strong> Maldives supports Indian claim over UNSC permanent seat with a veto.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Double Fish Hook Strategy:<\/strong> To counter the Chinese string of pearl, India is focusing on creating multiple naval bases in the Indian Ocean. Maldives is an important country for that.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Maldivian Students, Patients and Tourists:<\/strong> India is a preferred destination for Maldivians for education, Health, Business and Tourism.<\/li>\n<li><strong>India-Maldives trade:<\/strong> India and Maldives signed a trade agreement in 1981, which provides for the export of essential commodities.\n<ul>\n<li>Under the bilateral agreement, <strong>India provides essential food items<\/strong> like rice, wheat flour, sugar, dal, onion, potato and eggs <strong>and construction material<\/strong> such as sand and stone aggregates to the Maldives on favourable terms.<\/li>\n<li>India has a positive Balance of Trade with Maldives and is the 4th largest import source for Maldives after UAE, China and Singapore.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Major Concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>China\u2019s \u201cString of Pearls\u201d:<\/strong> Aims to ensure the security of its sea lanes, especially the unhindered flow of critically-needed energy supplies from Africa and West Asia through the Indian Ocean.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Former President Yameen\u2019s Policies and China Card:<\/strong> Although the incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is pro-India, the previous president Yameen\u2019s policies hurt the Indian Prospects.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Political Instability since 2015:<\/strong> It poses challenges while dealing with the changing governments.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increasing Radicalisation:<\/strong> The Maldives is also within the reach of radical outfits like Daesh (IS) and Pakistan based Madarassas, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India-Maldives are perfectly placed to complement each other\u2019s strategic interests.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, deeper Socio-Economic and Defence engagement can help both to propagate mutual interests at Global Platform.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Source:<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/security-allies-delhi-maldives-in-pact-for-harbour-7198677\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> IE<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsonair.com\/News?title=India%2C-Maldives-sign-agreements-on-wide-range-of-domains-including-fish-processing%2C-public-broadcasting&#038;id=410252\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NewsonAir<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News: Recently, India-Maldives Foreign Ministers meet concluded significant security and economic agreements. Key Outcomes of the Meeting Security Agreements $50 million defence Line of Credit agreement: The Finance Ministry of Maldives and the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India agreed over a 50 million USD Line of Credit for Defence Sector. Development of Uthuru Thila [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/6839765current-affairs (1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}