Mohamed Nasheed blames Abdulla Yameen for anti-India sentiment in the Maldives, calls joining China’s belt and road a mistake

The Speaker of Maldives Parliament and the former President of the country, Mohamed Nasheed, has blamed opposition Abdulla Yameen for “fueling” the anti-India campaign in the country calling it a “fabricated issue”.

Speaking to Zee Media’s Sidhant Sibal, Nasheed said, “people of Maldives will never, never back an India out campaign… Indian families, Indian doctors, Indian teachers, Indian accountants, and all this is contributing to our economic development.”

The Maldives President Solih recently issued a decree to ban anti-India protests calling them a threat to national security. Police authorities also removed “India out’ banners from Infront of the residence of Yameen, leader of the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

Slamming Chinese investment policies that have created debt, Nasheed who was also the former President of the country explained, “China has intentionally inflated the price of the project..” “Look at what is happening in Sri Lanka, it is so sad,” he said, adding “it was a mistake that we took part in road and belt initiative.”

His visit to India comes as part of ongoing high-level engagement as covid crisis abates. EAM Jaishankar was in the country just last month. He also did not rule out standing for Presidential elections in the country next year. Asked about who was responsible for the attack on him, Mohamed Nasheed said, “I don’t know. The police must tell me, the courts must decide.”

Q: How do you see India and Maldives relations?
A: Thank you very much and lovely to be in your show again. I came here this time for the Raisina dialogue, and the dialogue has changed and become so big. 1200 delegates, more than 80 countries, it is very very exciting.

India, Maldives relations are another reflection of that, it has been proved drastically since we came into the government, we have an India first policy. Our foreign policy is India first, exactly in the same manner as India’s foreign policy is Neighborhood policy.

There is a credit line for projects which India is assisting us and the government is submitting very good projects and they are all going very nicely, the cultural exchanges, the capacity-building work, the students’ exchanges, the university exchanges, everything is happening and we have a very bright future, both our countries.