Nasheed rebukes critics of renewing Maldives-India relations

Former President and former Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has rebuked persons who are advocating against and making fun of the improving relations between India and Maldives after a rocky diplomatic period at the start of the current administration.

Sharing a video of opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) president and former Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid making fun of the incumbent government's efforts to improve relations with India, Nasheed accused people responding in this manner of trying to 'score political points'.

He stated that such ridicule only went to show one's lack of abiding by one's own principles.

"If people who want friendly relations between India and Maldives go ahead and bring up past incidences and ridicule the government for its current efforts instead of welcoming the change, then this demonstrates that they do not honestly want India-Maldives relations. They just want to score political points. They cannot hold by their principles," Nasheed retorted.

Currently, India's Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is on a three day official visit to the Maldives. Minister Jaishankar paid a courtesy call on President Dr Mohamed Muizzu earlier today. Both the President and the Minister emphasized the close relations between the two countries and assured future cooperation.

The post shared by Nasheed has attached a video of Shahid making fun of the government's policies while speaking at MDP's National Council meeting.

Shahid is seen to say that the incumbent government has no intention of building ties with neighbouring nations, and that despite having travelled to multiple countries, the government had failed to get any financial assistance over the past nine months. He alleged that this is why the government has once again approached India, who has since agreed to provide assistance to Maldives.

"Then they were saying 'India Out', nine months later, now it's 'Welcome India'," Shahid said.

Nasheed's administration had also held close ties with India. At the time, Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People's National Congress (PNC) had been in the opposition, and had protested against Indian military presence in the Maldives under a campaign titled 'India Out'.

Ties between India and Maldives worsened at the beginning of the current administration with President Muizzu insisting that Indian military presence in the country cannot be allowed to continue. The two countries came to an agreement and the military personnel has since been replaced with civilians from India who continue to operate the aircraft they gifted.