India Maldives Diplomatic Row

Better India- Maldives relations is a must to make Indian Ocean Region a peaceful zone. The Maldives holds immense strategic importance in the Indian Ocean, acting as a gateway to the Arabian Sea and beyond. Increasing presence of foreign powers especially China has a concern for India and if not checked properly it might pose security implications to India. China has always been making efforts to encircle India and threaten its power projection, trade and potentially territorial integrity. Both India and China the two giants of Asia are grappling to capture the smaller economy to gain trade advantage at the cost of one anothers security .China’s String of Pearls strategy can be cited as example. On the other side, India left no stone unturned to counter their strategy by introducing Look East Policy or Act East Policy intended to integrate India's economy with South-East Asian nations. This paper is intended to examine the causes of diplomatic tussle between India and the Maldives with changing regime in the Maldives and the way forward to overcome the impact of challenges that existed between the two nations.