Maldives' president to make first official overseas trip to India, next month

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will likely make his first official overseas visit next month, to neighboring India.

Solih’s foreign minister made the announcement in an interview to Indian news outlet, Strategic News International, on Sunday.

“We are hoping to have President Solih make his first, maiden visit outside the country to Delhi and we’re hoping during that visit agreements could be signed and it would be a signal, a symbol of a new era of relationship that we have between the two countries,” said Shahid.

According to Strategic News International, President Solih is to travel to India on December 17.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the guest of honour at Solih’s swearing-in ceremony on November 17, arriving in Maldives for a few hours.

This was the Indian PM’s first visit to the Maldives since assuming office in 2014, despite former President Abdulla Yameen’s administration’s multiple invitations. While a visit was confirmed for March 2015 during Modi’s tour of the Indian Ocean, it was later cancelled following the political turmoil in the country.

Although Modi had abstained from visiting Maldives back then, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had visited Maldives in October 2015.

Bilateral ties between Maldives and India had deteriorated during the Yameen administration, as the focus was more on strengthening ties with China.

In his interview, Minister Shahid stated that the former president had “tried to play India against China and China against India”.

“He thought he was the puppet-master. What he forgot was that neither India nor China would be his puppet. They have better relations. There are high-level visits between the two countries,” he noted, adding that the new foreign policy “will be based on the principle of having good relations with all countries which want to have good relations with us”.

Minister Shahid will also travel to China during his ‘tour of friendly countries’.