Security concerns link India, Maldives even more

By N Sathiya Moorthy

(September 27, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) If New Delhi has security concerns flowing from across the border with other countries in the immediate neighbourhood, particularly on the land-locked northern front, in the case of the Maldives, shared security concerns of the kind have contributed to better understanding and mutual cooperation. Despite none-too-infrequent reports of Maldives doing business with non-regional countries like China and the US, there is considerable understanding in the two capitals that their fate, particularly in matters of strategic security, are inter-linked and inter-dependent.

Nothing explains the new fillip given to bilateral relations on the security front than the short-notice visit of Defence Minister A K Antony to Male in August. It was preceded by low-profile visits of high-level Maldivian delegations to Delhi, where they discussed the emerging security architecture in the shared Indian Ocean neighbourhood. Accordingly, India has accepted the Maldivian request for setting up a surveillance system, to monitor maritime movements. This includes a chain of 10 radars across the Maldivian archipelago along with an Indian gift of a helicopter, both for coastal surveillance. Based on future requirements, India may increase its contribution to Maldivian security, though it may limit direct participation to training of personnel, updating of technology and the like.

The Indian concern for security around Maldives acquired a new dimension after the 26/11 terror-strike in Mumbai. Concerned for quite some time over anti-India forces possibly using the Maldivian territory for terror-strikes, New Delhi was looking at greater cooperation between the two countries. Reports that the US security forces had nabbed nine Maldivian nationals in anti-terror operations in Pakistan’s Waziristan area in April this year did not surprise many in New Delhi. Maldives, which had all along taken the Indian concerns with the seriousness it deserved, was shocked. For a tourism economy, which was facing its worst-ever fiscal crisis thanks to the global meltdown, it meant much more than what is otherwise understood. As may be recalled, the Government of then President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom faced a lot of international flak after the ‘Sultan Park blast’ in the Capital, Male, in 2007. Incumbent President Mohammed ‘Anni’ Nasheed would have none of it, as both his political and economic perceptions of the Maldives are based on the ‘moderate Islam’ that the nation practises and the liberal democracy that his election last year has ushered in.

In the geographical and geo-political context, India and Maldives are natural allies and have been working together for common good. With the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India and Maldives set to increase manifold with the revision of the Laws of the Seas agreement in 2010, there is greater scope for shared economic prosperity between the two countries. As a nation that depends on imports to meet most of its daily needs, starting with sand for resort-construction to promote tourism, Maldives has strong ties with India on the economic front – owing to availability and low costs of products, services and transportation.

In seeking to obtain greater Indian cooperation on the security front, the Nasheed Government was aware of the domestic limitations and possibilities that it faced. A high-level team of Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was known to have underlined internally, the security concerns that their nation shared with India. All through the pro-democracy protests spearheaded by the MDP during the last innings of the Gayoom regime, India had stuck to its known policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of friendly neighbours. That the MDP too felt convinced about the non-partisan Indian stance became clear after Nasheed’s election as President. For their part, President Gayoom and his party had maintained the best of relations with India all through. As may be recalled, India also helped quell a failed coup against his regime in 1988.

The detached Indian approach to the anti-coup operations, both in political and military terms, has also remained as a confirmation of continued Indian support for any elected Government in Male, independent of political affiliation. It was no wonder thus that the DRP leadership lost no time in distancing itself from parliamentary criticism and weak public protests ahead of Minister Antony’s visit. The protestors were opposed to what they claimed as the Nasheed Government compromising the nation’s sovereignty and security by preparing to sign a defence deal with India during Antony’s visit. The Nasheed Government lost no time in flatly denying the allegations.

Periodic reports have appeared about the Maldives granting a military base for China in the Marao Island. Earlier, there was speculation about the UK wanting to revive the Gan Island air force base of Second World War vintage – or, the US wanting to have it. More recent reports have spoken about President Barack Obama signing a determination that would ‘entail’ Maldives to receive US defence articles and services, indicating a reversal from the days of President Gayoom’s single-party rule. Other reports have mentioned that Maldivian Home Minister, Mohammed Shihab, on a visit to Islamabad, seeking Pakistani help in training his nation’s police. Prima facie, India should have no concern in the matter. However, considering that it was in the late Seventies that Maldivian students began going to Pakistani madarassas for ‘religious education’ and it was also when the Pakistani ISI began unleashing the ‘zero option’, anti-India terrorism from across the borders of other neighbouring nations as well, there may be cause for concern in Male, instead – considering in particular the fragile nature of the linkages between fundamentalist groups and sections of the security apparatus in Pakistan.

-Sri Lanka Guardian