{"id":46309,"date":"2024-01-10T20:40:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T20:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/maldives-upgrades-ties-with-china-amid-pivot-from-india\/"},"modified":"2024-01-10T20:40:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T20:40:05","slug":"maldives-upgrades-ties-with-china-amid-pivot-from-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/maldives-upgrades-ties-with-china-amid-pivot-from-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Maldives upgrades ties with China amid pivot from India"},"content":{"rendered":"

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China and the Maldives upgraded their relationship on Wednesday during newly elected<\/a> President Mohamed Muizzu\u2019s first state visit to Beijing, following a campaign in which he cast<\/a> China\u2019s regional rival India as a threat to sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking at the Great Hall of the People, called Muizzu \u201can old friend\u201d as the Asian giant set the stage for further investment in the Indian Ocean archipelago by agreeing to a \u201ccomprehensive strategic cooperative partnership\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina and the Maldives\u2019 relations are facing a historic opportunity to carry forward the past and forge ahead into the future,\u201d Xi told Muizzu, Chinese state media reported.<\/p>\n

Muizzu took office in November, after winning on his \u201cIndia Out\u201d campaign<\/a> platform under which he called New Delhi\u2019s huge influence a threat to sovereignty.<\/p>\n

His government has since asked dozens of locally based Indian military personnel to leave<\/a> while talking up opportunities for Chinese investors despite being heavily indebted to Beijing.<\/p>\n

Relations between India and China nosedived after soldiers from both sides clashed<\/a> in the western Himalayas in June 2020, resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops.<\/p>\n

By upgrading ties with the Maldives, China is setting the stage for further investment in a region where India has already seen another neighbour, Sri Lanka, gravitate towards China.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the talks, President Dr Muizzu expressed gratitude for China\u2019s significant role in the Maldives\u2019 economic success \u2026 and infrastructure development,\u201d a statement from his presidential office read following the meeting, adding that \u201c20 key agreements between the two countries\u201d were signed.<\/p>\n

The Maldives owes China $1.37 billion, or around 20 per cent of its public debt, according to World Bank data, making Beijing its biggest bilateral creditor ahead of Saudi Arabia and India, which it owes $124 million and $123 million, respectively.<\/p>\n

Chinese firms have invested a further $1.37bn in the Maldives since it decided to join the Belt and Road Initiative in 2014, data from the American Enterprise Institute think tank shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina firmly supports the Maldives in safeguarding its national sovereignty, independence and national dignity,\u201d state media reported Xi as saying. Beijing would also be willing to \u201cexchange experience of state governance\u201d with Male, Xinhua<\/em> said.<\/p>\n

Muizzu was given a tour of the Chinese Communist Party Museum in Beijing ahead of meeting with Xi, a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, from his presidential office account showed.<\/p>\n

The World Bank in an October development report on the Maldives warned further cosying up to China could spell trouble as a \u201cbuild-up of sovereign exposure\u201d had taken place during the pandemic and there was a \u201clack of domestic investment opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Xi said he backed increasing the number of direct flights between the two countries, in a potential boon for the Maldives\u2019 travel and tourism sector, which constituted 79pc of economic growth in 2022, according to the Asian Development Bank.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China and the Maldives upgraded their relationship on Wednesday during newly elected President Mohamed Muizzu\u2019s first state visit to Beijing, following a campaign in which he cast China\u2019s regional rival India as a threat to sovereignty. Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking at the Great Hall of the People, called Muizzu \u201can old friend\u201d as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/10205610fd120d0.jpg?r=205913","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}