Ministers refute claims of potential foreign military presence in Maldives

Maldivian ministers have separately refuted recent reports of them allowing India to establish a military base in the Maldives in exchange for an economic bailout.

Japanese news website, Nikkei Asian Review, cited unnamed sources in the Indian government that the Maldives will allow such military presence in exchange for a massive USD 1 billion loan.

Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said in a tweet on Wednesday night that the Maldives will not be accepting any aid under terms that compromises its safety and sovereignity.

Defence Minister Mariya Ahmed Didi, in an interview with RaajjeTV, specifically said that Maldives will not be hosting any foreign military bases, and that there really is no need to do so.

Minister Shahid had earlier this week visited India and called on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, where he conveyed Maldives’ need for external aid to supplement development.

Ahead of the meeting, Shahid said that that the Maldives urgently needs up to USD 350 million and that he intends to secure India’s ‘generous’ assistance.

Nikkei Asian Review’s article primarily focuses on Maldives’ mounting debt to China, the result of aid and loans taken by former president Abdulla Yameen.

While the current government and its transition committee, headed by Minister Shahid himself, has said that said aid was acquired at inflated prices, the government has expressed its intent to negotiate with China so as to lax the terms of repayment. The total debt to China is estimated to be an upwards of USD 3 billion, though no official data is available.