Balance of trade 'greatly' in China's favor, Maldives-China free trade deal 'detrimental': Ex-President Nasheed

Former President Mohamed Nasheed has expressed concern over the government's decision to establish a Free Trade Agreement between the Maldives and China.

In a tweet sent out late Wednesday night, Nasheed emphasized that such an agreement "will be detrimental to our economy as balance of trade is greatly in favour of China," adding that the agreement "must be in the best interest of the people".

Nasheed's comments comes after the parliament passed the agreement, with the unanimous vote of the 30 members present at the emergency sitting held on Wednesday night. While opposition parliamentarians opted to not attend the sitting, some claimed that they were not notified of the sitting while others said they were only give a few minutes notice.

The opposition further claim that Wednesday night's vote 'is unlawful', as only 30 of the 85 members took part in the vote. The parliament's oversight committee on national security affairs had passed the agreement within 10 minutes.

The government maintains that the deal will be beneficial to the people.