A decade ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spelled out his new vision to handle neighborhood nations to the then Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
New Delhi: Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu’s on-going five day visit to India is actually a vindication of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s neighborhood first policy, aimed at keeping the bilateral ties Teflon coated from the sinusoidal curve of democratic politics. Muizzu, who got elected Maldives President on ‘Out India’ campaign in September-October 2023, has come back to Bharat on an Indian Air Force plane with 12 Cabinet ministers to sign the Comprehensive Economic Maritime Security Partnership agreement. What is more significant is that he has made a call to Indian tourists to come back to the Indian Ocean littoral state.
A decade ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spelled out his new vision to handle neighborhood nations to the then Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. He told Jaishankar that given its stature, size and shared history, India will always be a factor in neighborhood politics as the majority of countries in the Indian sub-continent are democracies. The PM said that China will always be a factor of concern as it will try to influence the Indian neighborhood to restrain the rise of Bharat. Similarly, Western powers, he told Jaishankar, will try to dabble in the Indian neighborhood to get a foothold for their own power play as seen in Bangladesh today. PM Modi said that India should forge stable relationships in the neighborhood which are independent of vagaries of democratic politics.
In line with PM Modi’s vision, India created a different dynamic in the neighborhood by investing in critical infrastructure requirements in the neighboring countries. Rather than dictating the projects in which India would like to invest in, the Modi government decided to take on road, railway, power, drinking water, fuel, bridge, ferry and new check posts projects on the basis of requirements of its bilateral partners. Simultaneously, India became the first responder to any economic, natural disaster, medical crisis like Covid-19 pandemic or extraneous factors like evacuating citizens of neighboring countries from war torn Sudan or Ukraine. Besides, India became a pillar of economic stability for its neighbor by offering economic aid to Sri Lanka during the 2022 upheaval and the currency swap agreement worth USD 400 million and ₹3000 crore given to Maldives this week. Maldives is currently facing a serious economic crisis with only USD 49 millions of usable reserves and huge debt repayment of USD one billion coming up in 2026. Barring Pakistan, India has helped all the countries in the neighborhood with debt issues and economic stability if required by them.
