Maldives President Muizzu in camp China. India ties worsen

News Snapshot:

The latest controversy was triggered by disparaging remarks made by three OF Muizzu ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indians at large. References to Indians drinking cow urine were a low blow but it wasn’t until Indians on social media began encouraging a tourism boycott of Maldives that Male issued a statement distancing itself from the ministers’ remarks and then suspended them. The ties between the two countries were already on rocky ground, with Muizzu demanding Indian troops leave the island nation and his government not renewing an agreement allowing India to conduct hydrographic surveys in Maldivian waters. But...