Context
Amid the “India Out” campaign that has been roiling Maldives for months, its President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih issued a decree banning protests against the country, citing a threat to national security.
About ‘India Out’ campaign
- ‘India Out’ campaign in Maldives had started sometime last year as on-ground protests in the Maldives and later widely spread across social media platforms under the same hashtag.
- It is not related to people-to-people conflict (Indian diaspora) but is discontent on close relationship between Maldivian government & India.
About India-Maldives Relations
- Both nations were Britain colonies.
- India was among the first to recognise Maldives after its independence in 1965 and to establish diplomatic relations with the country.
- India established its mission at Malé in 1972.
- India and Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links steeped in antiquity and enjoy cordial and multi-dimensional relations.
- India and Maldives are neighbors sharing a maritime border.
- Both nations established diplomatic relations after the independence of Maldives from British rule in 1966.
- India was one of the first nations to recognize Maldives’ independence.
- Since then, India and Maldives have developed close strategic, military, economic and cultural relations.
- Maldivians generally regard Indians and India as a friend and trusted neighbor in the field economic, social and political.
