Maldives To Not Renew Hydrographic Survey Agreement With India: President Muizzu
President Muizzu's decision comes amidst recent developments, including the presence of a Chinese research vessel near Male and just outside the Maldives' Exclusive Economic Zone.
New Delhi: Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu said that the country will not renew its agreement with India for conducting hydrographic surveys. Instead, the Maldives intends to acquire the necessary facilities and equipment to carry out these surveys independently.
Additionally, he also announced his plans to establish a 24x7 monitoring system for Maldivian waters this month, aiming to enhance control over its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which spans a considerable area.
The development comes in the backdrop days after China signed a defence cooperation agreement with the Maldives to provide free military assistance to foster stronger bilateral ties. India-Maldives ties encountered challenges ever since pro-China Muizzu assumed office last year.
Hours after, Muizzu took oath in November 2023, he had vowed to ensure Maldives’ sovereignty and one of the first steps was to demand India to withdraw all its troops, as per PTI.
President Muizzu's decision comes amidst recent developments, including the presence of a Chinese research vessel near Male and just outside the Maldives' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
In a speech at a ceremony during his visit to one of the islands on Monday, Muizzu emphasized the Maldives' efforts to obtain the necessary facilities for conducting hydrographic surveys autonomously.
“This will allow Maldives to conduct the underwater surveys of the country by ourselves. We will then acquire all insights of our underwater features and prepare charts, they will be drawn by us,” the president was quoted as saying by Edition.mv, a news portal on Tuesday.
The Agreement Signed By The Previous Govt Of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
The agreement, signed during the previous administration led by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, facilitated cooperation with India for scanning and acquiring insights into the Maldives' underwater bodies.
“We decided not to renew the agreement entered into with the Indian government to scan and acquire all insights into our underwater bodies. All these underwater details are our property, our heritage,” Muizzu said and claimed the Maldives earlier needed to purchase all such maps and survey data from India.
The announcement underscores the Maldives' intention to reassess its agreements with India, as part of a broader review of over 100 agreements signed by previous regimes.This is the first time that Muizzu has publicly commented about the hydrographic survey plans of his government.
The decision to discontinue the hydrographic survey collaboration with India, which was initiated under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2019 visit to the Maldives. “The former President had obtained the approval of the parliament to facilitate this hydrography services in the Maldives and confer the facility to the Defence Ministry,” the Edition.mv reported.
President Muizzu has reiterated on Saturday his government's commitment to enhancing maritime security and sovereignty by announcing plans to establish a 24x7 monitoring system for Maldivian waters. During a visit to Raa Meedhoo, he emphasized the importance of this initiative, highlighting that the Maldives' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is twice the size of its landmass but lacked effective monitoring capacity, as per PTI.
“Although the EEZ is part of our territory, we did not have the capacity to monitor the area. God willing, our work (to monitor the Maldivian waters) will commence in March.
The Maldives Coastguard currently relies on regular assistance from the militaries of neighboring countries and conducts certain special patrolling operations in collaboration with foreign allies, the news portal said.
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