Courtesy: Xinhua
A tiny nation of half a million people, Maldives has drawn enormous attention from the media, diplomats and informed public since Muizzu’s election last September. The interest has only risen after the recent diplomatic row with India and Muizzu’s increased bonhomie with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Courtesy: Khabarhub
On 6 October 2021, Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Programme, spoke to Dr. Pramod Jaiswal, Strategic Affairs Editor at Khabarhub on the role of Nepal in BIMSTEC and SAARC, in an analysis of the 17th BIMSTEC ministerial meetings. He also highlighted the role of SAARC and BIMSTEC in countering Chinese influence in the region.
Courtesy: Dying Regime / Flickr
Maldives’ new president, Ibrahim Solih, has had two election wins in a span of six months – his own in September 2018 and his Maldivian Democratic Party’s landslide victory in the Majlis elections about three weeks ago. An analysis of what this win says about democratic politics in Maldives, improved relations with India and the complex equation it shares with China
Courtesy: MEA Flickr
Maldives president Mohamed Solih comes to India this week, fresh from his election win and with a host of good intentions. His aim is to recast the bilateral and restore balance in Maldives’ external relations after the previous president’s China-centric leanings. Such a reversal may not emerge instantly
Courtesy: Washington Post
China’s large investments in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Maldives and the economic dependence this creates make it impervious to the internal political upheavals in these countries. This blog explores how it will retain its influence in Sri Lanka regardless of how the turmoil is resolved
Courtesy: MEA Flickr
The current political unrest in Sri Lanka and coups in Maldives and Zimbabwe bear a Chinese imprint. China’s use of strong-arm tactics smacks of the very behaviour that it had earlier criticised in former colonial powers
Courtesy: New York Times
The crisis in the Maldives is a case study of Chinese investments undermining democratic institutions in smaller countries. It poses long term threats to India’s economic and political security. And almost overnight, it has turned the Indian Ocean into the Indo-Pacific
Rajni Bakshi, Senior Gandhi Fellow, Gateway House reports from People’s SAARC, a motley gathering of NGO workers and members of the village communities they work with. PSAARC will compile a memorandum – a wish-list of demands and aspirations – on November 24 and present it to the heads of SAARC nations
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
The UN and the global finance industry are making gradual but concerted efforts to align business interests and ecological sustainability. A growing number of companies are combining profit-making with social responsibility. There is still a long way to go, but the UN system has created useful mechanisms of change
Courtesy: Ministry of External Affairs, India
Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen’s visit to India this week aims to repair ties, strained after the Maldives terminated a $500 million contract to the Bangalore-based infrastructure company, GMR. Yameen’s conciliatory stand stems from the need for international help, including India’s, to fix an economy in decline