Maldivian President Mohammed Muizzu is confident that India will come to the aid of the island nation as it faces an economic crisis.
Muizzu, who begins a five-day visit to India on Sunday, is expected to seek a bailout worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Maldives is staring at a debt default as its foreign exchange reserves have dropped to $440m (£334m), just enough for one-and-a-half months of imports.
“India is fully cognizant of our fiscal situation, and as one of our biggest development partners, will always be ready to ease our burden, find better alternatives and solutions to the challenges we face,” Muizzu said in an interview ahead of his visit.
Experts point out that Muizzu’s reconciliatory tone towards Delhi is a far cry from the rhetoric he adopted during his election campaign a year ago.
That campaign had centred on an “India out” policy, demanding that Delhi must withdraw its troops from the island nation.
However, Moody has said that “(foreign) reserves remain significantly below the government’s external debt service of around $600m in 2025 and over $1bn in 2026”.
It’s not clear where Muizzu will find the money to overcome the reserves crisis and that’s where his Delhi visit is seen as crucial.
India has already offered financial support worth $1.4bn to Male for various infrastructure and development projects.
Since Muizzu came to power in November 2023, relations between Male and Delhi have become strained.
Soon after taking over, he chose to travel to Turkey and China – his visit to the latter in January was seen especially as a high-profile snub to India as previous Maldivian leaders first visited Delhi after being elected.
Around the same time, a controversy erupted in India after three Maldivian officials made derogatory comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.