Maldives Upsets Big Brother India

[BanglaBhoot]

The government of the Maldives’ cancellation of a multi-million dollar airport management contract with a consortium led by India’s GMR hasn’t gone down well with India, its biggest ally.

The cancelation of the airport contract was “major setback” to ties between the two countries, said Salman Khurshid, India’s foreign minister, said in an interview with CNN-IBN. “Maldives has been an important partner for us and we would want it to remain so. But in a partnership, there are responsibilities. We have a right to expect that those responsibilities will be fulfilled.”

Earlier in the week, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement: “The decision to terminate the contract with GMR without due consultation with the company or efforts at arbitration provided for under the agreement sends a very negative signal to foreign investors and the international community.”

President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik doesn’t see the brouhaha in the same light. In an interview with the Press Trust of India, he said relations with India are stronger than ever before, and that the cancelation of the contract was simply a business decision.

“The bilateral relation, especially in the fields of military, trade and business, is even stronger than before,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Maldives government canceled a contract awarded in 2010, under the previous government of Mohamed Nasheed, to a consortium of GMR Infrastructure Ltd. 532754.BY +4.48% and Malaysia Airport Holdings 5014.KU -0.56% for running the country’s only international airport in Male for 25 years and for constructing a new passenger terminal.

GMR has since filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke the decision in a Singapore court. The Maldives set a deadline of seven days for GMR to hand over airport operations.

India has always considered the Maldives to be in its sphere of influence, as the string of 1,200 coral islands that make up the small country falls in the strategically-important sea lanes of the Indian Ocean.

India has provided the Maldives’ navy with a Trinkat patrol vessel and a helicopter, as well as training its defense personnel and building a military hospital. Indian vessels and aircraft routinely patrol Maldivian waters to guard against pirate attacks.

However, over the last decade China has been increasing its influence in Maldives by investing in infrastructure, such as the rebuilding of the country’s only national museum in Male, the capital. Chinese nationals are the largest group of tourists visiting the Maldives, a significant economic factor in a country where tourism’s about the only game in town. Maldives, with a population of 400,000, pulled in almost a million tourists to its remote islands and exotic resorts last year.

That has been noticed in the Maldives. The Adhaalath Party, a radical Islamic political party that is an ally of the government, sent out a stream of tweets yesterday berating GMR and India’s presence in the Maldives and extolling relations with China.

One of them read, “We would rather give the airport contract to our friends in China, who now make the majority of our tourist population.”

S. Chandrasekharan, a former Indian bureaucrat and analyst with the South Asia Analysis Group in New Delhi, said the cancelation of airport contract amounts to a failure of Indian diplomacy. “India should have seen this coming. Our diplomacy is so one-dimensional that it wasn’t able to take care of our economic interests in Maldives.”

Mr. Chandrasekharan said that the episode marks an attempt by the Maldives to assert its “nationalism and sovereignty.”

An Indian government official said Indian diplomats have been trying for a year to avert the GMR deal cancelation, but Maldives didn’t relent. He described the GMR issue as political in nature: “The president is in a political fight with those opposing him and this is a decision that certain parties supporting the government want.”

The Maldives’ former president, Mr. Nasheed, said the move to cancel the GMR contract was just one more episode in the nation’s economic mismanagement.

“The government’s reckless decision will scare off investors. It will have serious ramifications for the economy, at a time when we can ill-afford to see it falter,” he said in a statement.

On Sunday, Masood Imad, President Waheed’s spokesman, said in an interview that the decision to cancel GMR’s contract will be a positive signal for investors that the government won’t tolerate illegitimate practices.

GMR said the bidding process for the airport was transparent.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, in a statement, expressed concern over the “unilateral decision” of the Maldives’ government and urged the country to initiate talks with GMR to find an amicable solution to the disagreement.

Maldives Upsets Big Brother India - India Real Time - WSJ

 

[national_crisis]

Hahaha...China's answer to India's SCS gamble..

 

[idune]

Maldives airport row: GMR employees' visas to be cancelled

Male: The work permits and visas of GMR employees will be cancelled within seven days after the Indian infrastructure giant was ordered by the Maldives government to hand over the Male airport, a media report said Thursday.

The immigration and emigration department informed that following the termination of the agreement between the Maldivian government and GMR, the work permits and visas of employees of GMR will be cancelled within seven days, reported sun.mv.

The government Tuesday decided to terminate the agreement signed in June 2010 between GMR-MAHB Consortium, Maldives Airports Company Ltd., and the government of the Maldives, to lease the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport in Male to GMR for 25 years.

Mohamed Khalid, deputy chief executive officer of immigration department, told Sun Online that since the government has given notice of seven days to GMR to hand over the airport, the work permits and visas issued to GMR employees will not be valid after this period.

He said that this is as per existing regulations.

"Government institutions have to comply with the government's decisions, so we have decided to do this," he was quoted as saying.

Another media report, however, said that Immigration Department has decided not to renew visas and work permits of foreign employees of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) operator GMR group.

Haveeru.com quoted Deputy Immigration Controller Hamid Fathulla as saying that that the decision was made on the back of the government's decision to annul the agreement GMR. He added that though the visas will not be renewed, employees can remain in Maldives until the end of their current visa period.

GMR has described as "illegitimate" the order by the Maldives government to hand over the Male airport within seven days after its contract was annulled, and insisted the company will not leave the Indian Ocean archipelago nation.

Former president Mohamed Nasheed Wednesday said the government of President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik used xenophobia, nationalism and religious extremism to attack GMR and annul the agreement.

The agreement was signed during the regime of then president Mohamed Nasheed. The $500-million project was hanging in balance ever since the regime change in the Maldives earlier this year.

After a civil court in the Maldives ruled that GMR cannot claim $27 from passengers as Airport Development Charge and insurance surcharge, the Indian firm had taken the case to Singapore for arbitration.

GMR was deducting $27 from each passenger since January.

Maldives airport row: GMR employees' visas to be cancelled

 

[rockstarIN]

Ya we do not need them either, can't understand why we are giving them too much importance.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Mohammed Waheed Hassan is acting like a grade A a-hole. Trying to project a strong image.He's only hurting his nation in the long-run.

 

[KS]

Ya we do not need them either, can't understand why we are giving them too much importance.

Even if we dont need them, we would not want them to fall into the lap of China.

Another foreign policy disaster in the making after Sri Lanka fell into Chinese lap.

 

[Sashan]

Mind it - it was not started by India - rather some idiot supported by the radical elements within Maldives started it. So India does not have a choice here but to play hard ball else will project a weak image among countries in South Asia.

 

[rockstarIN]

If we dont need them, we would no want them to fall into the lap of China.

Another foreign policy disaster in the making after Sri Lanka fell into Chinese lap.

let chinese take them to the mainland china once their land go underwater. Not to trivandrum.

 

[idune]

Lessons from Male

To come back to the root of it, we messed up the Male policy needlessly. It was none of our business to propagate how the 3 lakhs Maldivians should practise liberal democracy. Worse still, we saw an al-Qaeda hand where none existed. We got out of the goof-up and reverted to our traditional policy of not being prescriptive to our neighbors, but the damage was done.

Indian Punchline - Reflections on foreign affairs

 

[KS]

let chinese take them to the mainland china once their land go underwater. Not to trivandrum.

Having our influence over them does not necessarily mean resettling them. What if China now establishes a small port or a listening post there ?

Nepal = disaster by initially supporting the Maoists when the royalists were strong and then distancing from the Maoists when they were winning ! Today China has more influence in this country than India

Bhutan = after decades it is mulling opening direct contact with China

Bangladesh/Pakistan = enough said.

Lanka = China's current project. Already they are on a full fledged expansion there while Indians are left in the cold.

Maldives = China's next project.

 

[idune]

Lessons from Male

To come back to the root of it, we messed up the Male policy needlessly. It was none of our business to propagate how the 3 lakhs Maldivians should practise liberal democracy. Worse still, we saw an al-Qaeda hand where none existed. We got out of the goof-up and reverted to our traditional policy of not being prescriptive to our neighbors, but the damage was done.

Indian Punchline - Reflections on foreign affairs

Once again india caught red handed by its own act running false al-qaeda propaganda against its neighbor. That is exactly the same propaganda india run against Bangladesh.

 

[Icewolf]

China is surrounding India Very soon there will be Chinese base in Gwadar

China is surrounding India Very soon there will be Chinese base in Gwadar

And then China will move on to Chittagong, Colombo ... A triangle front... China is very smart

 

[Obambam]

Having our influence over them does not necessarily mean resettling them. What if China now establishes a small port or a listening post there ?

Nepal = disaster by initially supporting the Maoists when the royalists were strong and then distancing from the Maoists when they were winning ! Today China has more influence in this country than India

Bhutan = after decades it is mulling opening direct contact with China

Bangladesh/Pakistan = enough said.

Lanka = China's current project. Already they are on a full fledged expansion there while Indians are left in the cold.

Maldives = China's next project.

I'm also looking forward to projects with India. No one should be left out. We are all neighbours afterall.

 

[KS]

I'm also looking forward to projects with India. No one should be left out. We are all neighbours afterall.

That post was not in any way opposed to china. You guys are looking after your interests and are entitled to that. The fault primarily lies with our political establishment.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Having our influence over them does not necessarily mean resettling them. What if China now establishes a small port or a listening post there ?

Nepal = disaster by initially supporting the Maoists when the royalists were strong and then distancing from the Maoists when they were winning ! Today China has more influence in this country than India

Bhutan = after decades it is mulling opening direct contact with China

Bangladesh/Pakistan = enough said.

Lanka = China's current project. Already they are on a full fledged expansion there while Indians are left in the cold.

Maldives = China's next project.

You seem to know too much of Chinese cladestine activites India look east, we look west, as for Maldives, any cancelled projects with India, China should give premiun discount to Maldives and take over its