On his first state visit to India on Monday ( October 7 ), Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu was greeted with a red carpet, according to Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi. This visit marked a “new chapter” in the rebuilding of strained relations.
Pro-China Muizzu came to power a year ago with the promise to remove lots of Indian soldiers from his tiny but carefully placed place.
Most South Asian officials are invited to New Delhi soon after taking office, but India has only granted Muizzu a state visit for about a month.
India but on Monday rolled out a financial help to boost Male’s struggling business, with Muizzu and Modi discussing “energy, business, financial linkages and military cooperation”, India’s foreign ministry said.
Your visit marks a new chapter in our relationships, Modi told Muizzu, who was given an honor guard, including infantry and a moving circle.
” India will always be there for the Islands ‘ growth and improvement,” the statement reads.
Muizzu, 46, in a statement alongside Modi that included the online opening of an Indian-supported airport tarmac and social cover, said he had held “extensive discussions… charting a path for the future partnership between our two countries”.
He even thanked India for fiscal support “instrumental in addressing foreign exchange problems”, including a 30 billion dollar ( US$ 357 million ) and US$ 400 million dollar transfer deal.
India may also build the commercial port in Thilafushi to ease the congestion at Male, and the two countries will commence discussions on a probable free trade agreement.
India completed Muizzu’s May date to leave a force of 78 troops stationed in the Maldives to run two planes and a fixed-wing aircraft.
However, the plane remained and are still being operated by an Indian human crew.
In an interview released Monday in the Times of India, Muizzu said,” What I did is what the Island asked of me.”
” Island would never do anything that affects the stability of India”, he told the paper.
” While we expand our cooperation with other nations in various sectors, we firmly believe that our actions wo n’t harm the stability and security of our region.”