{"id":33424,"date":"2018-10-30T12:15:03","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T06:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=33424"},"modified":"2018-10-30T12:15:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T06:45:03","slug":"island-hopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/island-hopping\/","title":{"rendered":"Island hopping\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/editorial\/island-hopping\/article21284637.ece\"><strong>Island hopping<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The announcement of a free trade agreement between the Maldives and China is another sign of Beijing\u2019s success in its outreach in South Asia<\/p>\n<p><strong>Author\u2019s contention<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The announcement of a free trade agreement between the\u00a0Maldives\u00a0and China is another sign of Beijing\u2019s success in its outreach in South Asia<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ramping up its business ties<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>China already has an FTA with Pakistan, and is exploring or negotiating FTAs with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal<\/p>\n<p><strong>FTA with Maldives<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The negotiations with the Maldives took about three years and were completed in September this year; it was ratified overnight by Parliament in Male. The agreement is expected to be signed this week, during President Abdulla Yameen\u2019s first state visit to China<\/p>\n<p><strong>India\u2019s response<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>New Delhi has made no public statement, it has reportedly made its displeasure known, particularly on the speed and stealth with which the negotiations were completed<\/p>\n<p><strong>Increasing China-Maldives ties<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ties b\/w China &amp; Maldives have been ever increasing visible clearly by the following,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Massive infrastructure projects, including the development of Hulhule island and the \u201cFriendship\u201d bridge connecting it to Male<\/li>\n<li>Apart from investments of $1 billion, Chinese companies are exploring tourism prospects in the Maldives, leases to resort islands, and reclamation projects<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Worries for India<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Not satisfied with working of FTA with India<\/strong>: The Yameen government said this week that it is not satisfied with the working of the FTA with India. That statement, made by the Fisheries Minister at a press conference in Colombo, is likely to be discussed in detail between New Delhi and Male<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hasty manner of rushing FTA in the parliament<\/strong>: The manner in which the FTA was rushed through Parliament in a matter of minutes at midnight, with opposition members complaining they had not received enough notice, suggests a haste that would naturally worry India<\/li>\n<li>The biggest worry for India is that the FTA will draw the Maldives more closely into China\u2019s security net<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Why India was kept out of loop by Maldives wrt FTA with China?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One reason for Mr. Yameen keeping India out of the loop on the FTA talks may be New Delhi\u2019s new policy of engaging with the Maldivian opposition, especially former President Mohammad Nasheed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Militarisation <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although Mr. Yameen has categorically stated that the Maldives will remain a \u201cdemilitarised zone\u201d, there are concerns that the PLA-Navy might be looking for a military base in the islands linked to projects in <strong>Djibouti, Gwadar and Hambantota<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The docking of three Chinese naval warships in Male harbour in August, the first such \u201cgoodwill visit\u201d, was significant in this respect. China\u2019s growing presence in the Indian Ocean presents a challenge to India as it looks to define its place in the U.S.-led \u201cIndo-Pacific\u201d realignment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Island hopping\u00a0 Context The announcement of a free trade agreement between the Maldives and China is another sign of Beijing\u2019s success in its outreach in South Asia Author\u2019s contention The announcement of a free trade agreement between the\u00a0Maldives\u00a0and China is another sign of Beijing\u2019s success in its outreach in South Asia Ramping up its business&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/island-hopping\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Island hopping\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704779187},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}