The Chinese government's top diplomat told the visiting Maldivian Foreign Minister on September 21 that the Maldives are not mired in a Chinese debt trap, amid fears in the Indian Ocean country which has debts as high as $3 billion owed to Beijing. Maldives has been caught in a battle for influence between India and China which invested millions of dollars during the reign of former Chinese leader Abdulla Yameen as part of China’s Belt and Road plan designed to enhance its global trade reach. Maldivian Democratic Party which won a landslide in the archipelago’s parliamentary election in April fears the debts to China could be as high as $3 billion and risk plummeting the economy. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi said while meeting Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid in Beijing that China's cooperation with the Maldives would not have an effect on the change of the government. The Chinese Foreign Ministry citing Wang said that China's cooperation with the Maldives focuses to promote the well being of the Maldivian people without any political and geopolitical interests.

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China denies idea of 'debt trap'

Wang added that China will help the Maldives in whatever way it can without any political preconditions and does not interfere in its internal affairs. The Chinese statement quoted Shahid and said that no country in the world has been as generous as China to lend their hand to help the Maldives starting from the building of infrastructure to the provision of a large amount of aid and loans. It also mentioned in its statement that there is absolutely no so-called debt trap and said it is complete nonsense. China has been criticized by the Western nations that it pays a huge amount to underdeveloped nations for the sake of developing nations with unsustainable debt they have no hope of paying back and seeks to use this to leverage political influence. China claimed that its loans are much needed and much welcomed by the nations and clarified that it provides loans without any political preconditions.

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Former Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed lashes out

Former Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed had earlier lashed out and compared China to the East India Company. He has accused Bejing of grabbing more land than the East India Company ever did without firing a bullet. In his address to the Indian Ocean Conference in Male, the former President accused his previous Government, under former President Abdulla Nasheen, of putting the country in deep debt in collusion with China. 

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