When Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the Maldives’s 60th Independence Day celebration in capital Male on July 26, 2025, his presence will mark a major turnaround in ties between the neighbours — something that neither side might have foreseen 18 months ago.
Also read: Ties in region back in focus with PM’s visit to Maldives
Although Mohamed Muizzu used the ‘India out’ plank — taking off on a campaign by former President Abdulla Yameen — for his successful presidential bid in September 2023, there was a notable thaw in the Maldives’s India ties within months, seen in the meeting of the leaders of both countries, on the sidelines of the UN COP 28 climate summit in Dubai in December 2023, where they agreed to bolster economic partnership and people-to-people ties.
Downs and ups
However, early 2024 saw a rapid decline in the relationship again, with junior Maldivian ministers making derogatory remarks against PM Modi, in connection with his Lakshadweep visit, and a shrill, apparently well-coordinated ‘Boycott Maldives’ campaign that dominated Indian social media soon after, threatening the country’s tourism-reliant economy.
Returning from a five-day visit to China in January 2024, President Muizzu told local media that the Maldives may be a small island nation, but that does not allow others to “bully” the country and that the Maldives “is not in anyone’s backyard”. In March 2024, Mr. Muizzu said no Indian military personnel, not even those in civilian clothing, would be present in his country after May 10, 2024. By early May last year, India fully pulled out its troops from the Maldives, meeting the deadline set by President Muizzu, with a compromise of replacing them with technical personnel.
Economic support
Subsequently, ties saw an improvement, paving way for President Muizzu’s state visit to India in October 2024, even as the island nation was struggling with its debt burden and widening fiscal deficit that some feared might push it towards default.
After the two leaders met in New Delhi, India signed a crucial currency swap agreement — available until 2027 — with the Maldives for $750 million, to help the island nation tide over its current foreign currency crunch. The two countries also agreed on a “vision statement” for a “comprehensive economic and maritime security partnership” going forward. In May 2025, India rolled over a $50 million-treasury bill to support the country bolster its reserves and stabilise its economy.
Today, Indian flags have been put up across Male, sources based in the capital city told The Hindu on Thursday, to welcome the Indian PM, scheduled to arrive Friday [July 25, 2025] morning from the United Kingdom, amid considerable social media criticism of the Maldivian government from detractors. Mr. Modi is the first Head of State to visit the Maldives since President Muizzu assumed office in November 2023.
‘Hard work’
“It’s a question of working hard at a relationship,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said, in a special media briefing on July 22, 2025, referring to the positive shift India-Maldives ties. Observing that “there will always be events that will impact or try to intrude on the relationship”, he pointed to the “kind of attention” that has been paid to the relationship and including at the highest levels. “We have continued to work at it …we have also been in very close discussions with our partners in the Maldives to provide clarity and assurances about what it is that we want to do bilaterally, and I think the result is there for all to see,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
Describing the joint vision for an ‘India-Maldives comprehensive economic and maritime security partnership’ as the “guiding framework” for bilateral ties, Mr. Misri said New Delhi has seen nearly half a dozen ministerial-level visits from the Maldives in the first six months of this year. During Mr. Modi’s visit a set of agreements across sectors is expected. The two sides are likely to agree on the terms of reference for the Free Trade Agreement that is currently under negotiation. Further, agreements in new areas of cooperation, including renewable energy, fisheries, digital infrastructure are to be firmed up.
Prior to Mr. Modi, former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif participated as Guests of Honour in the Maldives’s Independence Day events in 2015 and 2017 respectively.
