Sunday
24th Nov 2024
Dhivehi Edition
President Nasheed
Nasheed Tells Indian Newspaper That India Out Movement Makes Maldivians Very Uneasy
Majlis Speaker, former President Mohamed Nasheed, has stated that the ongoing "India Out" campaign is making the Maldivian people "very uneasy".
Speaker Nasheed said this during an interview with India's "The Hindu" newspaper in Sri Lanka. He had travelled to Sri Lanka as a guest-of-honour for the Sri Lanka Youth Parliament's closing ceremony.
Speaking with reference to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's recent official visit to the Maldives, Speaker Nasheed said that he did not believe that it was appropriate to play one country against the other. He said that it was important for the Maldives to maintain "sincere ties" with all of its allies.
He said that India was the Maldives' neighbour and the first "port of call in everything", and he said that he did not think that "Indian assistance in the Maldives needs to be shadowed with something else".
"There is a lot of bad blood, especially with President Yameen, and his campaign and narrative against India that is making our people very uneasy", said Nasheed.
He said that it was for this reason that "it is getting more and more crucial that the MDP remains in government".
Despite Nasheed's current comments to the Indian newspaper, as a leader of the opposition, Nasheed had been an ardent critic of the Yameen administration's dealings with China. At the time, Nasheed had claimed that the Yameen administration had sold off 17 islands to China, that land had been granted to the Chinese to set up a military base.