Maldives- India relations
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2017
Maldives signs Free Trade Agreement with China
Maldives ‘flouts rules’, quietly inks trade deal with China, December 1, 2017: The Times of India
Setting off fresh concerns over China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives government has signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Beijing without taking the country’s opposition, or even the people, into confidence.
According to the Maldivesopposition, the archipelago already owes almost 70% of its debt to China.
Maldives remains the only country in the region which PM Narendra Modi is yet to visit. Despite its stated India First policy formulation, the Abdulla Yameen government has shown scant regard for India’s security-related concerns.
“We are also deeply concerned that further entrenchment of thecountry into a Chinesedebttrap will resultin additional stress on strategic national assets and increasing instability in Indian Ocean region,” said the main opposition party, MDP’s statement.
According to the opposition, on November 29, the Speaker of parliament called for an emergency sitting, to pass the FTA with China. While the negotiations had been completed in September, Yameen signed the document. The agreement was apparently sent to the parliamentary oversight committeeon national security affairs within 3 minutes of submission tothefloor.
“The committee vetting the agreement took less than 10 minutes. The committee was conducted against parliamentary procedures... with deliberations closedoff for the public and to the media... MPs were not given access to the document... The government allowed for lessthan 1hour for the parliamentary process to approve the 1000+ page document,” saidthestatement.
FTA with China erodes Maldives’ sovereignty
With Maldives and China entering into a Free Trade Agreement, the nitty-gritty of which is yet to be made public, there’s mounting concernthat thestrategically-located archipelago could be the next country to walk into a Beijing debt trap, a situation that has serious strategic ramifications for India.
In an exclusive interaction with TOI, former Maldivian president and leader of main opposition party MDP Mohamed Nasheed slammed the agreement and said it wasn’t just against Maldivian national interest but would also upset “traditional allies’’ of the country, causing further tension in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
India and the US, the two “democratic stalwarts” in the Indo-Pacific, have repeatedly called for responsible debt financing practices as they have looked to undercut China’s policy to provide easy access to capital abroad in the name of improving connectivity. With the trade balance already favouring China, there’s a fear that the FTA will further increase the deficit.
Developments in Maldives since the ouster of Nasheed in 2012 have worried India as the islands have been roiled by internal power plays and the growing shadow of China’s economic and military presence in the IOR along with signs that radical influences are taking root in the nation where a large majority practices Sunni Islam.
“This disgraceful agreement — rushed through parliament in under an hour, whileopposition MPswere conveniently summoned to appear in court — is not in the Maldivian national interest,” said Nasheed, who lives in exile in London.
“Itwilldeepen thedebttrap to China. Already more than 70% of our foreign debt is owed to Beijing, which givesBeijing huge leverage over us, undermining Maldivian sovereignty and independence,” he added. Recent examples such as Sri Lanka’s decision to allow Chinese control of Hambantota port as part of a debt swap have sharpened India’s concerns too.
The Maldivian opposition believes India has continued to mollycoddletheAbdulla Yameen government in thefond hope that itwill, even as it encourages Chinese investment, do nothing to hurt India’s security interest. In August, theMaldives, which PMNarendra Modi has avoided visiting so far, was said to have allowed three Chinese warships to dock at the Male harbour.
