Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on his win in the 2018 presidential elections.

China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua News on Sunday reported the Chinese president has sent a congratulatory message to Solih.

Noting that China and Maldives ‘share a longstanding friendship,’ President Xi is to have told Solih that China ‘is committed to developing relations with Maldives on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence’.

He said that China ‘is willing to work with Maldives to continue to cement the friendship and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields to better benefit the people of both countries.’

Noting that he ‘highly’ values the development of China-Maldives relations, President Xi said that he is willing to ‘join hands’ with Solih ‘to lift the comprehensive partnership [between both countries] to a new level’.

China’s influence in the Maldives has increased during incumbent President Abdulla Yameen’s five-year term, which has in turn soured the country’s relations to neighboring India. A free trade agreement was signed between Maldives and China last year, despite criticism.

Solih, while campaigning for the election, said that his administration will not do anything to harm Maldives’ ties with China, but that priority will be given to neighboring countries when establishing a foreign policy.

Other leaders to have congratulated Solih on win against incumbent President Yameen include, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.