Maldives vows to continue China-backed building boom, drive Indian troops out
Male: Two days after his party’s stunning parliamentary victory, President Mohamed Muizzu’s office today said that Maldives will press on with Chinese-backed construction projects and evict Indian troops from the country.
According to Kashmir Media Service, in Sunday’s elections, Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) won more than two-thirds of the seats in the vote for the 93-member assembly. The elections were held in the backdrop of the shift in Muizzu’s foreign policy away from India. The vow to remove Indian troops from the country was part of Muizzu’s election platform. Several of the Indian troops have already left and the complete withdrawal is supposed to take place by May 10.
The president’s office quoted Muizzu thanked voters for the landslide victory by his People’s National Congress (PNC). He promised a boom in building apartments, bridges, and new airports with Chinese funding.
Without mentioning either India or China by name, Muizzu was quoted as saying: “We will bid farewell to the enduring anguish of housing insecurity, a pressing and longstanding concern burdening the Maldivian populace…It is important that Maldivians have sole authority over matters concerning our nation, to be addressed according to our desires.” He did not mention China or India “I will work towards ensuring that the Maldives sovereignty is not compromised”, his office quoted him as saying at a victory rally in Male.
Muizzu previously declared that the deployment of Indian troops was an affront to the Maldivians.
Beijing has welcomed Muizzu’s spectacular electoral success.”China is willing to work with the Maldives to maintain traditional friendship (and) expand exchanges and cooperation in various fields,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.
