India Has Always Helped Maldives Sail Through Crisis – Covid Vaccines to $1.3-Billion Lines of Credit

In January 2021, when the second wave of Covid-19 was raging in the world, the Maldives was the first foreign recipient of a vaccine from India to fight the pandemic. Within days of launching the vaccine, India sent three lakh doses in the first three months of that year to the Maldives, despite export restrictions and its domestic requirements.

Maldives’ ministers may have taken potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India, but in the last few years, India has always gone the extra mile to help the country. From evacuating Maldivian nationals from Wuhan, permitting travel of seriously ill Maldivian nationals to Kochi for treatment at the height of Covid-19, sending a composite medical team to Male to fight Covid, extending USD 1.3 billion worth of Lines of Credit, or helping Maldives expand the Hanimaadhoo International Airport to boost its tourism potential – India’s list of help to Maldives is “all-encompassing”, officials say. A number of Maldivian officials have also been undergoing training in India in various institutes as part of knowledge-sharing arrangement.

THE COVID TIMES

In March 2020, when Covid-19 first hit the world, India decided to provide immediate assistance to the Government of Maldives and sent a large Composite Covid-19 medical relief to Male. This comprised pulmonologists, anesthetists, physicians and lab technicians. Despite an export ban, India gifted essential medicines to Maldives deal with Covid-19 as a special goodwill gesture. India also evacuated nine Maldivian nationals from Wuhan. India sent 580 tonnes of food and 50,000 Hydroxychloroquine tablets to the Maldives.

India has permitted the travel of 37 seriously ill Maldivian patients to Kochi to pursue medical treatment. Several of these patients suffer from cancer and require radiation treatment. This was despite India not opening its borders to foreign travelers during Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 6.2 tonnes of essential medicines and hospital consumables were also airlifted by an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-130 aircraft from India to Male through Operation SANJEEVANI.

On January 20, 2021, the Maldives became the first country to receive, as gift, 100,000 doses of India-manufactured vaccines within 96 hours of their country-wide rollout in India. This supported the Government of Maldives to undertake one of the world’s fastest vaccination drives. Two more consignments of one lakh vaccines each were sent by India in February and March 2021, respectively, as well.

INFRA-MONEY HELP

As part of the India-Maldives development partnership, India has extended eight ‘Line of Credit’ Projects worth USD 1.3 billion to the Maldives. EXIM Bank of India signed a Line of Credit Agreement for USD 400 million, for funding the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP), while India committed a USD 100 million grant for the project. This is the single-largest connectivity and infrastructure project in the Maldives and the 6.74-km-long, which will link Male to Vilingili, Gulhifalhu and Thilafushi.

India also decided to support the Hanimaadhoo International Airport expansion project under the USD 800 million Line of Credit from EXIM Bank of India, whose groundbreaking ceremony was done recently in the presence of senior Indian officials. This includes the extension of the runway to 2,200 metres (to allow A320s, Boeing 737s to land), and the upgrade of terminals and the project will be the major engine of future development of northern Maldives and will encourage local and foreign investment in tourism, officials say.

Other projects being built in the Maldives with Indian support are Water and Sewerage network for 34 islands, Addu Roads and Reclamation project, Gulhifalhu Port, expansion of facilities of MIFCO, Cricket Stadium in Hulhumale and a Cancer Hospital in Hulhumale. A USD 40 million Line of Credit was dedicated to development of sports infrastructure in the Maldives was concluded between the EXIM Bank of India and Government of Maldives. In 2022, in response to a request from the Government of Maldives, India has provided financial assistance of USD 100 million as budgetary support.