Despite tensions in the bilateral relationship over the past six months, India has extended budgetary support of $50 million to Maldives. India’s support was acknowledged with gratitude by Male on Monday and comes days after the last of the Indian troops left the archipelago in keeping with Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s election promise to not allow foreign boots on the ground.

The announcement of budgetary support was made by the Indian High Commission in Male.

“State Bank of India has subscribed for one more year the $50 million Government Treasury Bill, issued by the ministry of finance of Maldives, upon maturity of the previous subscription.

These Government Treasury Bills are subscribed by SBI under a unique Government-to-Government arrangement at zero-cost (interest-free) to the Government of Maldives,” the mission explained in a press release; adding that this was done at the special request of the government of Maldives.

The formal request was made by Maldivian foreign minister Moosa Zameer during his visit to India last week. “I thank EAM @DrSJaishankar and the Government of #India for extending vital budgetary support to the Maldives with the rollover of the $50 million Treasury Bill. This is a true gesture of goodwill which signifies the longstanding friendship between #Maldives and #India,” Zameer said in a post on X after the announcement was made.

Zameer visited India a day before the expiry of the deadline set by the Maldives to replace Indian military troops — stationed in the atoll nation to operate two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft for medical evacuations and search-and-rescue operations — with civilian personnel from India.

While India has not to date revealed the identities of the replacement personnel including details of where they have been recruited from, Zameer on his return from India said they were civilian employees of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, a public sector aerospace and defence company.

During the bilateral engagement in Delhi, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had said: “As close and proximate neighbours, the development of our ties is obviously based on mutual interests and reciprocal sensitivity. As far as India is concerned, these are articulated in terms of our Neighbourhood First policy and SAGAR vision.”

For India, Muizzu’s pro-China tilt is a cause for concern, and Maldives’s request for debt relief from India — first articulated by the President himself in March in an interview with a local news portal — provided an opportunity to project New Delhi as a reliable neighbour and also reset ties after the past six months of hostility.

Apart from the #IndiaOut slogan of the election campaign and Muizzu making the withdrawal of Indian troops his first order of business after assuming office in November 2023, the past months saw a “boycott Maldives” call in India after some Maldivian ministers posted offensive messages against Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he tried to package Lakshadweep islands as an alternative to the Maldives.