India to donate military aircraft, helicopter to Maldives

[vayuputhra]

Despite all that I see us struggling with them. They threw out GMR in favour of some chinese firm. Yameen attended Modi's swearing in when we sent a special aircraft. They showed no urgency to welcome him on their soil. They are a sovereign nation but when they are audacious enough to have defence ties with our "enemy" nations. India doesn't seem to have a long term strategy but deal with the issues as and when they come. So Maldives will show interest in buying JF-17 and in the bargain India will give them free MiGs and helis. They give port to chinese subs and we rush to them with some other freebies. And this will go on because we have failed to have a long term strategic relations with them. If their economy and survival is so much dependent on us, it does not reflect in their behaviour. We may compare their defence with Kerala Police and feel happy. Power means nothing if you cant use it to your benefit. We have allowed our neighbours to blackmail us by going to China and I see no strategy .

When IPKF entered Sri lanka and mirages foiled the coup in Maldives, they should have acted as a reason to have a comprehensive defence ties. Similarly, we let go of the opportunity with Nepal after the 50 yrs treaty expired. I am not saying that we are threatened by these nations but I am emphasizing on our policy and startegy. Giving freebies is merely a tactics to deter a problem in the short term.

India has the means and power, india can hurt them where it hurts them the most, just declare adjoining islands of Maldives as free trade zones tourist spots, when their economy takes a hit they will come to us, nowadays people respect only power, not goodwill,
As for srilanka we cab give them run for their money if we built sethu samudram project, as for now all cargo even ours are traversing through Colombo, and they know that, and for Nepal it was India's fault neglecting it for long and allowing it to slip in to maoist stronghold, india never helped the Nepal royal family, never encouraged political parties who favored india, we need to help Nepal in nation building, but if they become arrogant, there are means to persuade them, they should know the antagonising india will cost them more, and MEA should be proactive in dealing with our neighboures.

 

[SrNair]

Was overthrowing President Nasheed from power at the behest of India? Yes we are big so we can queeze them anytime but we are not threatened by them but their nuissance value which we are failing to deter. Our retaliatory strategy in SCS itself is an indication of our inability to manage our backyard.
Do you realize that there wont be any war and all these are a balancing act. But letting our neighbourhood infested with anti Indian forces costs us really dear during peace time.

Agreed mam .
Islamists already tighten their grips in Maldives .Taking heavy handed measures will only cause unnecessary international attention.
Maldives will play because Chinese and their money is already in here .Our enemy is China not Maldives .
Forcing the Chinese in SCS will balance their efforts in IOR .
If we go soft on Maldives they will try to exploit that .We dont need that .

 

[Razia Sultana]

Agreed mam .
Islamists already tighten their grips in Maldives .Taking heavy handed measures will only cause unnecessary international attention.
Maldives will play because Chinese and their money is already in here .Our enemy is China not Maldives .
Forcing the Chinese in SCS will balance their efforts in IOR .
If we go soft on Maldives they will try to exploit that .We dont need that .

Thanks for understanding the issue.
Islamists and wahabis are just an excuse. We have much better relations with Saudi Arabia, Iran and other islamic nations. Its sheer callousness on part of our diplomatic and intelligence corps who do not consider posting in a neighbouring country (except Pak/china) worthwhile. And this too is reflective of our strategy.

 

[Ind4Ever]

Has Maldives been spoilt? I highly recommend you to visit Agatti island and see it yourself. You can take a SpiceJet flight from Kochi in Kerala.

This spoil is a bullshit excuse of previous corrupt regimes to not let resort industry pick up there.

Resorts for such terrain is usually not multi-story fancy skyscrapers with concrete; they are organic hut-like structures with wooden piers, canework furniture and made from natural material which will not affect environment.

Also, handing over the entire cluster to the Navy was a stupid decision.

IN and ICG already patrol our waters from Kochi which is one of the largest naval bases in India.

The tribes there are not some pandas that will go extinct by someone visiting there after a thorough medical screening, mandatory for visiting the islands there. And if they are so endangered, then how the hell did muslims go there and convert them left, right and centre? Was that not risking diseases for unabated activities that are as per constitution, illegal?

Why am I raising this?

Because the same SHIT excuse was made for keeping us isolated from rest of India, whether it is my state, Arunachal, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya or Tripura.

And the result was nefarious activities that have made our region a news item ONLY for terrorism, earthquake, drugs, and natural calamities. People of my country don't know people of our states because of this lie called "endangered tribes".
You see, developing Lakshadweep requires vision, mission and dedication which no regime in last 67 years had and those handful who had, barely survived as regimes until now.

You should destroy your house and other builds and Plant trees. Do you know you have destroyed the landscape?

It did fail until they chucked out GMR off their airport.

However, the water crisis turned it around. Also, Yameen who was flying high was simply reminded about his sinking country.

For all its beauty, the country is pretty cold at heart for Indians in general. Even under Nasheed.

If our government gets pissed off and develops Lakshadweep as an alternative, they'd vanish as a 'market' for tourism.


Lakshadweep has the same terrain and qualities that Maldives has and only needs interest from GOI to push it to its peak potential. In addition those tourists who want to see everything in one visa, can simply choose India. From white sandy shores of Lakshadweep, to coastal plains of Karnataka, to Deccan Plateau, to dense forests of our northeast and of course, the mighty Himalayas.

Very good idea and must be implemented. We should play the game as it is. Our good will gesture mostly unnoticed and miss used. We must keep the pot boiling so we can feed our diplomacy. Maldives must be thought a lesson that it will not forget for ever.

Just my view

 

[SrNair]

Thanks for understanding the issue.
Islamists and wahabis are just an excuse. We have much better relations with Saudi Arabia, Iran and other islamic nations. Its sheer callousness on part of our diplomatic and intelligence corps who do not consider posting in a neighbouring country (except Pak/china) worthwhile. And this too is reflective of our strategy.

I agree with that .100% percent .

GMR issue was took place during UPA 2 govt .
Even this govt is primarily focusing on Pak and China for intel infos .Something that we need to change .We have to expand our intel reach maximum for our own interest ,anywhere in this world .

 

[dadeechi]

Unfortunately due to complacency and ill planning, India has already lost Sri Lanka and Maldives to China.

India should at least now open it's eyes to these ominous developments and develop Lakshadweep on the lines of Andamans else it should be prepared to loose Lakshadweep too to China.

 

[Tshering22]

Why until GMR? They have let our PM skip a tour to their nation and now leaving us with no choice but to give them freebies lest they buy from china or pakistan. Why cant we have a comprehensive defence treaty with them, like NATO, and take care of their defence needs. We should make something like Indian Ocean Region Defence and Economic Cooperation and try to include like minded nations from the region.

We are already responsible for their defence along with Mauritius and Seychelles.

The thing is Mauritius and Seychelles are cooperative and friendly while Maldives is a very confused entity.

They want to appear neutral, yet want complete support from India; at times they use other countries' cards as a bargaining chip while some other time, they cringe and croon for favours.

Maldives is anything but like-minded.

Despite all that I see us struggling with them. They threw out GMR in favour of some chinese firm. Yameen attended Modi's swearing in when we sent a special aircraft. They showed no urgency to welcome him on their soil. They are a sovereign nation but when they are audacious enough to have defence ties with our "enemy" nations. India doesn't seem to have a long term strategy but deal with the issues as and when they come. So Maldives will show interest in buying JF-17 and in the bargain India will give them free MiGs and helis. They give port to chinese subs and we rush to them with some other freebies. And this will go on because we have failed to have a long term strategic relations with them. If their economy and survival is so much dependent on us, it does not reflect in their behaviour. We may compare their defence with Kerala Police and feel happy. Power means nothing if you cant use it to your benefit. We have allowed our neighbours to blackmail us by going to China and I see no strategy .

1- They feel that Chinese funds are a back up and Yameen is floating on this patronage.

2- Maldives doesn't have deep water ports needed for proper military bases. It is a shallow coral reef set of islands with water percentage over 95%. Forget stationing nuclear submarines.

3- JF-17? Maldives doesn't have an air force and the onus of their air cover is dependent on India.

Sadly because of pathetic politics and corrupt and incompetent officials in Indian politics till now, Maldives has been taking leverage saying they will play us against China to curry favours.

For long, NaMo has ignored Maldives for a reason; he and S Jaishankar see what Menon and MMS didn't bother seeing.Why do you think the only time they meet Yameen is during SAARC and other groupings and not individually? Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are PM's target countries for increasing relationship and forging a strong relationship. (Though the diplomatic 'concern' with Nepal's current leadership is simply due to their own internal politics and lack of mature statesmanship, blaming domestic problems on us; still Nepal is a strident ally country and majority of Nepalis see us as their friends or at the most neutral partners due to shared culture, customs and values).

Most articles claiming that PLAN can launch bases in Maldives have little or no knowledge about what kind of berthing and port facilities are needed by a country in order to get nuclear submarines and warships into a harbour. Let me give you an example below:

Look at this and tell me how can you berth warships and submarines. And this is about as "landy" as Maldives gets.

The only place where Yameen can threaten India is a political position at UN along with Pakistan.

But then it will fall from our list of favourite nations. While others will bail them, or try, you cannot change geography; for the same reason that we engage with Pakistan despite 'non-state' elements relentlessly targeting our country all these years.


IMO Maldives is just kept on backburner for a reason; they don't offer us anything to the level that other countries in our region.

Unfortunately due to complacency and ill planning, India has already lost Sri Lanka and Maldives to China.

India should at least now open it's eyes to these ominous developments and develop Lakshadweep on the lines of Andamans else it should be prepared to loose Lakshadweep too to China.

No we haven't "lost" anyone to China.

FYI Andaman and Lakshadweep are our territories while SL and Maldives are sovereign states. Please check geography before commenting.

 

[Tshering22]

It is not necessary to do any of that. There is a far simpler way; without over-exploiting (and thus screwing-up) Lakshadweep.
Maldives has a serious problem with rampant spread of Islamism. When the World is woken up to that fact, the tourist will stop lining up to come. This is the Age of Information; use it effectively.

And where will the tourists stay? Agatti island is not enough alone to compensate for the kind of pampering people get in Maldives. We just need to copy-paste the Maldivian model of development for resort islands using organic palm and jute material for simple natural resorts which don't need heavy glass-and-concrete resorts and is environmentally friendly.

Also yes, the information could do wonders.

Although I hope UN finds them some other country to stay. We don't want them here after their islands sink.