Galolhu South Constituency MP Ahmed Mahloof has claimed that President Abdullah Yameen chose to send an envoy to India, rather than going to India due to Chinese pressure or his own pride. 

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Mohamed Asim is in India, as a special envoy of President Yameen. 

In a tweet posted regarding this, MP Mahloof, a vocal critic of the Government, said that President Yameen had refrained from going to India himself due to Chinese pressure or his own pride. 

MP Mahloof also noted that President Yameen had consistently refrained from meeting Prime Minister Modi over his tenure. 

The schedule released by Indian Ministry of External Affairs show that Minister Asim is set to meet his counterpart and PM Modi on Thursday. He will meet with Sushma Swaraj, his Indian counterpart, at noon on Thursday at Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan. This will be followed by the meeting with Prime Minister Modi at 4.45pm at PM's official residence Lok Kalayan Marg.

He is to return back to Maldives on Friday. 

The visit comes at a time of strained relations between Maldives and India, especially in light of closer ties Maldives maintained with China.