Maldives refreshes China ties but that's not all why India must tread carefully

As the world devolves from the unipolar world led by the US in the immediate aftermath of the end of the Cold War to an international order more in flux-not yet multipolar and not quite bipolar either-small states are gaining outsize ability to shape their own destinies. Long used to being ignored, many small countries are increasingly capable of playing rival states against each other and expanding their diplomatic space. Maldives is a classic case in point. With newly elected Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu being seen as pro-China, the India-Maldives-China triangle appears simply to be continuing a cyclical phenomenon of…