The foreign ministers of India and the Maldives met here on Friday, outwardly unaffected by a US newspaper report that claimed New Delhi was briefly involved in a Maldivian Opposition attempt to oust President Mohamed Muizzu from office early last year.

India has trashed the Washington Post report and questioned the publication’s credibility.

Maldivian foreign minister Abdulla Khaleel, on a three-day official visit to India, and external affairs minister S. Jaishankar held delegation-level talks.

The two sides took stock of the progress made on the understandings reached during Muizzu’s state visit to India last October, and followed up on issues that need further focus.

The Indian readout of the meeting said Jaishankar had reaffirmed the importance New Delhi attaches to its ties with the Maldives and assured continued support to Male under India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy and Vision Sagar (Security and Growth for All in the Region).

In a post on X, Khaleel said: “We reviewed the progress of our bilateral cooperation and reaffirmed our strong commitment to enhancing engagements across key sectors. I conveyed our appreciation for India’s unwavering support and assistance to the Maldives throughout our long history of relations. We are resolute in strengthening our partnership based on mutual trust and respect, for the benefit and prosperity of our peoples.

“After the meeting we signed the HICDP (High Impact Community Development Projects) MoU, launching the Third Phase of project-based cooperation aimed at directly benefiting people at the grassroots level.”

The Maldivian foreign ministry’s readout said both ministers had acknowledged the economic partnership and the progress of ongoing projects facilitated through Indian grant assistance and line-of-credit initiatives.

“Minister Dr. Khaleel conveyed appreciation from the Government of Maldives for India’s support and assistance to ease the ongoing fiscal challenges. Minister also acknowledged the close cooperation in advancing economic, trade, and investment ties between the two nations, as well as for India’s committed role in the socioeconomic development of the Maldives,” it said.

The external affairs ministry broke its silence on the Post report, published earlier this week.

“Both the newspaper and the reporter in question appear to nurse a compulsive hostility towards India. You can see a pattern in their activities. I leave you to judge their credibility. As far as we are concerned, they have none,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

The Post report had said that India had conspired for a few months with the Maldivian Opposition to oust Muizzu, who had been elected in September 2023 on the back of an “India Out” campaign.

However, the Post added, the plan was abandoned as not enough legislators were willing to join the effort to impeach Muizzu.

In any case, India and the Maldives had begun mending the bilateral relationship by the spring of 2024. New Delhi bailed Male out financially in May, following which the ties have improved.