Mending ties, making friends

Bilateral ties with the Maldives achieved a much-needed reset earlier this week when President Mohamed Muizzu visited India. He met Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, and the two sides announced a new vision document for a comprehensive economic and maritime security partnership. “The Maldives will remain a true friend, committed to our shared vision of peace and development of our countries and our region,” President Muizzu said during the visit. This iteration marks a remarkable turnaround in relations, which had hit rock bottom last year when Muizzu won his election on an “India Out” plank. Malé’s political leadership quickly realised that the anti-India rhetoric may be useful in domestic politics,but it has undesirable economic and geopolitical consequences. New Delhi, for its part, has been willing to forget the acrimonious past to repair its ties with a close neighbour. This is smart diplomacy at a time of great churn in global power relations, especially in the backdrop of China’s power ambitions.

The Indian Ocean Region is India’s strategic backyard, but the sensitivities in its neighbourhood are such that nationalism in some countries often acquires an anti-India edge, even if for the wrong reasons. The good part is that the political leadership in India seems to recognise this conundrum and has played the game well. New Delhi was quick to help when Colombo faced an economic meltdown in 2022, and public anger forced the then political leadership to flee. The few-strings-attached aid diplomacy helped to put at rest the suspicions that a large section of the Sinhala majority in that country harboured against India for what it perceived to be Delhi’s support for the Tamil nationalist cause. New Delhi has also walked the extra mile to engage with the new dispensation in Colombo. President Anura Dissanayake belongs to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, a fierce critic of Indian initiatives in Sri Lanka. This history, however, did not prevent India from engaging with Dissanayake in February or welcome his rise to office in September. External affairs minister S Jaishankar was the first foreign leader to visit Colombo after the new President took office.

This is a track that could extend to Dhaka as well. The uprising in Bangladesh and subsequent ouster of Sheikh Hasina from the PM’s office has threatened Delhi’s close ties with Dhaka. However, the new head of State, Muhammad Yunus, has assured that he wants friendly ties with India. Hilsa diplomacy and holidays for Durga puja suggests that Dhaka is aware of India’s sensitivities and may not want to play the anti-India card for the radicals at home. There is clearly a case to fireproof bilateral relations from regime change and ensure continuity in policies and preferences, even at a time when Hasina is in safe harbour in India.

As India seeks to pull its weight as an emerging economic power and seek its due place in global affairs, it will need to be secure about its neighbourhood. There is clearly a newfound confidence that all attempts in the neighbourhood to project national sovereignty need not be seen as anti-India. This confidence also underlines India’s outreach to Asean — in his address at the 21st Asean-India Summit in Vientiane, Laos, PM Modi spoke about India’s role as a Vishwabandhu (friend to the world) — and its participation in forums such as Quad. While Delhi may not be able to compete with Beijing’s aid diplomacy yet, geography and soft power should help its outreach to affirm old friends and win new allies. The signs are there to see.

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