Defence Minister Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon and Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel reached wide-ranging agreements with India during their back-to-back visits.
Maldivian Defence Minister Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon on Friday concluded a three-day official visit to India. The main purpose of the visit, which took place from 8 to 10 January, was to review various aspects of bilateral defence cooperation and explore avenues for further collaboration. Earlier, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel had visited New Delhi from 2 to 4 January.
Defence Minister Maumoon’s visit included a bilateral meeting with the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and a visit to Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai and the Goa Shipyard. During the bilateral meeting between the two ministers on 8 January, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to work closely in realising the “Joint Vision for India-Maldives Comprehensive Economic and Maritime Security Partnership” adopted during President Mohamed Muizzu’s visit to India in October 2024.
Minister Rajnath Singh reassured India’s commitment to adopting a flexible and accommodating approach to meet Maldivian requirements for defence training and equipment. Accordingly, he handed over some defence equipment and stores upon the Maldivian government’s request.
The visit indicates a significant shift in the Maldivian ruling coalition’s critical approach towards its defence and security ties with India.
Since 1988, India and the Maldives have had strong defence cooperation. Following the coup attempt in 1988, which was thwarted with the assistance of the Indian armed forces, the government of Maldives decided to upgrade the National Security Service (renamed the Maldives National Defence Force, MNDF) in 2006, which was in overall charge of the country’s security at that point of time.
India played a major role in the development and upgrading of the MNDF. Currently, India provides the largest number of training opportunities for the MNDF, meeting around 70% of its defence training requirements.
In 2006, India offered Malé a state-of-the-art 260-tonne fast attack craft to aid in guarding its coastal waters. Since 2009, the Indian Coast Guard has been carrying out regular sorties over the Maldives to look for suspicious vessels.
With the change of the political system in the Maldives in 2008, a section of the political elite began doubting India’s intentions behind its growing defence cooperation with the Maldives. Leaked information on India’s plan to set up a coastal surveillance radar system following Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s visit to the Maldives in August 2009 caused an uproar in the Maldives.
Since then, anti-India sentiment continued to strain bilateral relations. Yet, bilateral defence cooperation continued. India gifted helicopters in 2010 and 2016, which were extensively used for medical evacuation and search and rescue operations. A Comprehensive Action Plan for Defence was signed in April 2016 to consolidate the defence partnership.
India provided pollution dispersant to the MNDF Coast Guard in 2016. The Indian Coast Guard has also provided oil spill control equipment. The MNDF has participated in various military-to-military activities such as sea-rider programmes, adventure camps, sailing regattas, etc. Indian Navy deployed 10-member Marine Commando Mobile Training Teams to the Maldives in 2017 and 2018 at the Maldives’ request. India has also offered customised training for the MNDF Fire and Rescue Service in India and trained MNDF personnel for UN peacekeeping operations at CUNPK.
Since 2017, however, India-Maldives defence cooperation faced serious setbacks as India was asked to take back its helicopters and the military personnel who manned them. The Annual Defence Cooperation Dialogue at the level of Defence Secretary and the Annual Joint Military-to-Military Staff Talks, launched in 2016, were cancelled by the Abdulla Yameen government. Trilateral Maritime Security Cooperation between India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives was halted. The Maldives declined India’s invitation to participate in the Milan 2018 Naval exercise.
After the change of government in 2018, and particularly after President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s maiden visit to India in 2019, the defence cooperation was revived and strengthened.
A technical agreement on sharing white shipping information between the Indian Navy and the MNDF was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Maldives in June 2019.
During the visit, Modi, along with President Solih, inaugurated the composite training facility of the MNDF in Maafilafushi and the coastal surveillance radar system by remote link. The two leaders further agreed to set up a joint working group on counter-terrorism to counter violent extremism and prevent radicalisation. All the stalled bilateral defence and military-to-military talks and trilateral maritime security cooperation between India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives resumed post-2018.
A hydrographic survey agreement was signed between the two countries in 2019. India provided a Dornier aircraft to the Maldives under an “intergovernmental agreement” in 2020 to enhance security and joint Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surveillance as well as for high-availability disaster recovery. In February 2021, a US$50 million credit line agreement for defence purposes was signed between the two countries. An agreement to develop, support and maintain an MNDF Coast Guard Harbour at Sifvaru in Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF) Atoll was also signed between the two countries.
The then opposition political parties – Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and People’s National Congress (PNC) – objected to these agreements, particularly the agreement to develop a dockyard at the UTF base, the agreement to operate a Dornier aircraft, and the hydrographic survey agreement, by propagating an “India Out” campaign.
Even though the “India Out” campaign could not stop the defence projects, the then-opposition promised to cancel all the defence-related projects and agreements once they were in power.
Accordingly, after the PNC leader Mohamed Muizzu won the presidential elections, India was asked to withdraw the military personnel who were manning the two helicopters and the Dornier aircraft. After extensive negotiation, India replaced the military personnel with civilians to operate the two helicopters and the Dornier aircraft.
The PNC government also announced that the hydrographic survey agreement with India signed by the previous administration would not be renewed on its expiry. The government also decided to review all the agreements signed with India under the Solih administration. At the same time, the new administration entered into a defence partnership with Turkey and a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with China and has been exploring new collaborators in the defence sector to reduce its dependency on India.
Joint Vision Statement
However, amidst a looming economic crisis, President Muizzu changed his stance and reached out to India. The government of India too responded positively with financial assistance and grabbed the opportunity to mend the bilateral relations.
During Muizzu’s maiden visit to India in October 2024, both sides adopted a joint vision for the “India-Maldives Comprehensive Economic and Maritime Security Partnership” to outline the framework of bilateral relations with a special focus on political exchange, development, trade, economic, financial, digital, energy, health, defence and security cooperation, capacity building and training, people-to-people connection, and cooperation at regional and multilateral fora.
The joint vision statement clearly shows that the Muizzu administration is no longer following its previous critical view on the UTF harbour development project and agrees that the ongoing Ekatha harbour project at UTF would significantly contribute towards enhancing MNDF’s operational capabilities. In the areas of hydrography too, both sides agreed to continue its cooperation through capacity building and training.
To reiterate the Maldives’ commitment to the vision statement, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel visited India from 2 to 4 January to strengthen diplomatic and developmental cooperation. The highlight of the visit was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the third phase of the High Impact Community Development Projects.
Three days after Khaleel’s visit, Defence Minister Maumoon visited India to reiterate Maldives’ commitment to further the defence and security cooperation as stated in the vision statement.
As per the vision statement, the two sides agreed to support the Maldives with the provision of defence platforms and assets to augment the capabilities of MNDF in advancing its maritime and security requirements, in line with national priorities. This includes surveillance and monitoring capabilities through the provision of radar systems, enhancing domain awareness via infrastructure, training, and best practices sharing, and strengthening disaster response and risk mitigation through the development of SOPs and exercises to achieve enhanced interoperability.
Both sides also agreed to cooperate on hydrographic matters through capacity building and training, as per the requirements of the government of Maldives. A mutual agreement was reached to increase capacity building and training slots for MNDF, Maldives Police Services, and other security organisations of Maldives under the ITEC programmes and other customised training programmes in India.
It was agreed that India would extend financial assistance to develop and upgrade MNDF and Ministry of Defence infrastructure, including the state-of-the-art Maldivian Ministry of Defence building in Malé.
Conclusion
Discussions during the maiden visit of the Maldivian Defence Minister give a clear indication that the ruling party of the Maldives has shed its initial inhibitions about the country’s defence ties with India. The economic crisis definitely played an important role in changing Muizzu’s approach towards India.
However, economic compulsion perhaps is not the only reason why the Muizzu administration is trying to continue defence and security partnership with India. The Maldives, with its vast EEZ, is exposed to several traditional and non-traditional maritime challenges, including piracy, IUU fishing, drug smuggling, and terrorism.
These diverse challenges cannot be addressed by relying only on a few countries. Turkish drones can enhance the surveillance capability of the MNDF, but they cannot ensure overall maritime security. Given the nature of threats, the Maldives needs maritime security cooperation with multiple partners in multiple areas.
In addition to multiple partners, a country also requires a reliable and willing partner. Due to geographical proximity, India and the Maldives share the same security concerns. Therefore, it is in India’s interest too that it collaborates with its maritime neighbours to ensure maritime security in the region. The defence and security cooperation between the two countries is not just based on commercial purposes.
Common security concerns in the maritime domain necessitate the two maritime neighbours to have multifaceted defence and security cooperation. India extends multidimensional security and defence assistance in terms of training and capacity building, the supply of equipment, maritime domain awareness through coastal surveillance radar systems, infrastructure development, and financial assistance, including grants for demand-driven projects and as per Maldives’ requirements.
India’s quick response in times of crisis to the Maldives’ requests so far indicates that it is not just a capable partner but also a willing, trusted, and dependable one.
After coming to power, the PNC is perhaps trying to distance itself from the “India Out” campaign, claiming it was the project of former President Abdulla Yameen, who has severed all ties with the PNC and PPM.
Dr Gulbin Sultana is an Associate Fellow with the South Asia Centre of Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position of the MP-IDSA or www.maldivesrepublic.com