First Responder

News: India has extended economic aid to Maldives in the form of currency swap arrangements to help it overcome the domestic economic crisis. Maldives President’s recent visit to India has strengthened the bilateral ties between countries, particularly after his ‘India Out’ election campaign.

1. Currency Swap Arrangements: It is a financial arrangement between two countries where one of them agrees to provide a loan to another in a foreign currency, with repayment taking place in a different currency at a fixed rate and an exchange rate.

2. Benefits of currency swap arrangements include lower interest rates, increased economic cooperation, financial stability, financial safety nets.

3. India Out Campaign: It is a political movement to mobilize people in Maldives against India and calls for removal of India’s military and diplomatic presence from Maldives.

4. Maldives President’s election campaign rallied support around the ‘India Out’ campaign.

5. Neighbourhood First Policy: It came into being in 2008 to bolster India’s relations with countries in the immediate neighbourhood namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

6. It aims at developing friendly and mutually beneficial relations with neighbours and enhancing physical, digital and people-to-people connectivity across the region.