Nasheed in Delhi: for Maldives, debt trap is a dangerous loss of sovereignty, independence

Former President Mohamed Nasheed has stated that 75 percent of the Maldives foreign debt is owed to one country and such a debt trap is a dangerous loss of sovereignty and independence.

The former President made the statement speaking at a conference held by India's Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), on Friday. He was invited by the organization's Chairperson Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, India's former Ambassador to the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

In his address, President Nasheed noted that with relation to emerging powers to the eat, who exert influence primarily through major infrastructure projects, underpinned by commercial loans. The result of this, Nasheed said, was always the same; the country where these projects are built becomes more and more indebted to the creditor country. This, he said was a dangerous loss of sovereignty and independence.

Nasheed stressed that nations only prosper when governance is a priority and public are involved in the process of governance. He added that projects taken for the sake of it, or vanity infrastructure projects do not add value to a nation; instead they become a burden, which in the end impacts the nation in long term.

"We worry about new threats to our sovereignty, our independence, and our way of life. And we worry about our traditional alliances,” the former President said.

This is Nasheed's first trip to India in recent times; jailed for 13 years in March 2015, the former President left the Maldives to UK in January 2016, where he has been granted political asylum.