Former President Mohamed Nasheed has said that China wants more involvement in Maldives.
He said this while speaking to the press before leaving to India after accepting invitations from India’s Council for Culture Relations and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Speaking to the press, Nasheed said that China wants to have too much influence in the Indian ocean, alongside with Maldives and India, and that they want to have more involvement in Maldives, as the archipelago nation is a commercial hub for the region.
Highlighting how China has placed many African and Asian countries in debt by giving them loans for development projects, Nasheed said that China always compels countries who are unable to pay back the loans to give it a stake in those projects.
Nasheed also said that former President Abdulla Yameen had made decisions that undermined Maldives’ independence by accepting huge loans from China, and that China will ask for stakes in the projects initiated by the loans if Maldives were unable to pay it back.
Yameen’s administration accepted loans from China to initiate major development projects including the bridge connecting Male’ and Hulhule’, which had cost USD 300 million, most of it paid for by Chinese loans with huge interests.
Nasheed said that the current administration is working to get the best outcome from this situation.
Nasheed is set to return from his trip to India on February 14.
Want to share a story with raajje.mv? email us at [email protected] or call (+960) 9110099