The federal government has been facing criticism for welcoming an increasing number of immigrants—both permanent and temporary residents

Ottawa (Canada), January 14

Amid the growing unemployment and housing crisis in Canada, Immigration Minister Marc Miller on Saturday said in the next few months, he will be looking at the possibility of putting a cap on the number of international students living in the country, CTV News reported on Saturday.

The minister didn’t specify the extent of reduction the government is planning on making in the immigration system.

In an interview to CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, the minister said, “This is a conversation the federal government will need to have with provincial governments “to make sure that the provinces that have not been doing their jobs actually rein in those numbers on a pure volume basis.”

“That volume is disconcerting,” Miller said, with reference to the number of international students in Canada.

“It’s really a system that has gotten out of control,” he added.

Miller said he would be looking at the possibility of setting a cap on international students to help reduce the demand for housing in both the first and second quarters of this year.

Asked why his government is only considering a cap now when the idea was floated months ago, Miller said there’s a need to sort out numbers on a federal level before looking with “a little more granularity” at what individual academic institutions are doing in different provinces, possibly profiting off bringing in more international students, CTV News reported.

“We need to be doing our jobs and making sure that we have a system that actually makes sure people have a financial capability to come to Canada, that we’re actually verifying offer letters,” Miller said, adding, “And now it’s time for us to have a conversation about volumes and the impact that is having in certain areas.” A cap on international students would not be a “one-size-fits-all solution” to housing shortages across Canada, Miller noted.

On the number of international students coming to Canada, far outpacing the number of homes the federal government is planning to help build, Miller also said housing is only part of the calculation when it comes to immigration targets. The pressing need to bring down the average age of the workforce also needs to be taken into consideration, he said.

While not going into specifics, Miller said a cap on international students is something the federal government is considering, “and will continue to consider.” “We have a sense of what those numbers would look like, what the reduction of those numbers look like, out of courtesy to my colleagues in the provinces, those are discussions that we’re first going to have around the negotiating table,” he said, adding that the financial needs of academic institutions is also a factor.

The federal government has faced criticism for welcoming an increasing number of immigrants–both permanent and temporary residents–while the country faces an acute housing shortage.

Meanwhile, CTV reported citing The Canadian Press, which cited the internal documents obtained through an access to information request, the federal government was warned by public servants two years ago that its ambitious immigration targets could jeopardise housing affordability.

The Liberals have set targets aiming to bring in 485,000 immigrants this year, and 500,000 in both 2025 and 2026.

Temporary residents, largely comprising international students and migrant workers, are another part of the equation, with more than 3,00,000 of them arriving in Canada in just the third quarter of last year. 

Another system to manage real-time intel collation

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, January 14

The Army has adopted artificial intelligence for two separate projects — to identify suspicious persons within a crowd, and to collate intelligence and ensure quick real-time decision-making on ground.

The first one, called ‘Seeker 2.0’, is an artificial intelligence-based biometric, identification and analysis system. “This can provide information on civilian population in high security or threat zones while restricting actions of anti-national elements,” states the Army’s list of “key initiatives” adopted for transforming itself into a tech-backed force.

Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande had on January 11 said, “2024 will be a year of technology absorption.”

The system can be employed for ensuring high-level security of critical military and civilian establishments and also at border crossings to identify suspicious people based on their biometrics.

It has been developed by the Army as a self-contained, state-of-the-art “made in India” system.

The AI-powered deep-tech analytic module of ‘Seeker 2.0’ enables processing of data from various sources, identify patterns and predict threats aided by accurate information collection and collation. An AI-backed deep-learning algorithm allows the ‘Seeker 2.0’ to function without the Internet and operate in wide range of environmental conditions.

The system has been tested and is now “operationally deployed”, says the Army.

The second project — ‘Bahirji’ — is an AI-based information collation and analysis software. “It has been developed by the Army as a cutting-edge solution to challenges posed by labour-intensive and time-consuming manual intelligence gathering,” the Army said.

The advanced software has been named after Bahirji Naik, who was a Maratha spy and head of the intelligence department in Shivaji’s army.

The innovation aims to achieve deeper situational insights by leveraging data.

“Bahirji revolutionises military intelligence by automating data extraction, facilitating real-time analysis and providing critical insights from raw inputs,” the Army said.

The system enhances data-driven decision-making abilities at the ground level for commanders and it can seamlessly integrate with the Geographic Information System to generate informative heatmaps for enhanced situational comprehension.

It can provide output in text format for predictive analysis, forecasting, validation of plans, anomaly detection and summarisation. “Bahirji stands ready for deployment,” said the Army.

‘Seeker 2.0’

• The artificial intelligence-based biometric, identification and analysis system can provide information on civilian population in high security or threat zones while restricting actions of anti-national elements
• Can be used for ensuring high-level security of critical military and civilian establishments by identifying suspicious people based on their biometrics
• AI-backed deep-learning algorithm allows Seeker 2.0 to function without the Internet

‘Bahirji’: Named after Maratha spy

• n Named after Bahirji Naik, who was a Maratha spy and head of the intelligence department in Shivaji’s army
• n Aims to achieve deeper situational insights by leveraging data
• n Can extract data, facilitate real-time analysis and provide critical insights from raw inputs
• n Capable of providing output in text format for predictive analysis, forecasting, validation of plans, anomaly detection and summarisation

The attack marks the first US-acknowledged targeting by the Houthis since America and allied nations began strikes on Friday on the rebels following weeks of assaults on shipping in the Red Sea

AP

Dubai, January 15

Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an anti-ship cruise missile towards an American destroyer in the Red Sea on Sunday, but a US fighter jet shot it down in the latest attack roiling global shipping amid Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, officials said.

The attack marks the first US-acknowledged targeting by the Houthis since America and allied nations began strikes on Friday on the rebels following weeks of assaults on shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have targeted that crucial corridor linking Asian and Mideast energy and cargo shipments to the Suez Canal onwards to Europe over the Israel-Hamas war, attacks that threaten to widen that conflict into a regional conflagration.

The Houthi fire targeted the USS Laboon, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer operating in the southern reaches of the Red Sea, the US military’s Central Command said in a statement.

The missile came from near Hodeida, a Red Sea port city long held by the Houthis, the US said.

“An anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militant areas of Yemen towards USS Laboon,” Central Command said. “There were no injuries or damage reported.”      

The first day of US-led strikes on Friday hit 28 locations and struck more than 60 targets with cruise missiles and bombs launched by fighter jets, warships and a submarine. US forces followed up with a strike on Saturday on a Houthi radar site. 

   NOWHERE  MAN

         AUTHOR- SHIVALIK BAKSHI                       216 PAGES

        PUBLISHED BY PENGUIN VEER 2023

  This is a book about courage, betrayal and hope. It is a book about someone we all- the Army, the governments of the time, society, the media- forgot. All, that is, except his family, especially his two sisters, and this book is an attempt to keep his memory, and the silence surrounding his disappearance, alive. Captain Kamal Bakshi, a 25 year old officer of the 5 Sikh Battalion , was last seen on the 6th of December, 1971 at his command post 303 in the Chhamb sector on the border with Pakistan, surrounded by an enemy battalion, tanks bearing down on his post, his platoon decimated. Company Havildar Ajit Singh, who had been ordered by Bakshi to retreat back to HQ, turned round for one last look and saw the Captain leap out of his trench and rush towards the enemy, firing all the time with his Sten machine gun. Since then he has disappeared into the maws of officialdom, declared dead, or missing, or a POW at different times. All efforts by his family to uncover the truth about him- indeed, even if he is still alive at the age of 77- have petered out into the arid desert of bureaucratic indifference, stoic silence and impotent diplomacy. For officialdom he is just a faceless number on some file buried deep in an army cabinet. This book (by his nephew) is an attempt to reveal the face behind this number, the introverted boy who grew up in an army family, the young man who wanted to do his family and his country proud, a soldier who loved books and nature.

  Kamal Bakshi was born in Rawalpindi in undivided Punjab in 1946, studied in Dagshai and Sherwood College, Nainital, joined the NDA (National Defence Academy) and was commissioned into the Indian army in 1966. The author has given us a glimpse- it was a short life of just 25 years that he was dealing with, after all- of Kamal’s life by interviewing his family, school friends, course mates, colleagues and superior officers. The picture we get is of a young man with extraordinary- sometimes contradictory-  traits: studious, fond of reading. a nature lover, adventurous (he once walked from Chandigarh to Shimla), a fitness freak with a spartan lifestyle, a man who loved challenges and would never give up. generous and giving to a fault- travelling on a train one bitterly cold night, he just gave away his sleeping bag to a shivering co- passenger who had none. Born into an army family (his father was a Colonel) he was always destined for the defence forces, his first choice was the Air Force but poor eyesight did not allow that. 

  Kamal Bakshi was initially declared killed in action and was also posthumously awarded a “mention in despatches”, but subsequently, partly due to the unceasing efforts of his father, was categorised as “missing in action”. In 1978, during the course of a statement in Parliament, the Minister of State for External Affairs admitted that he was secretly being held in captivity by Pakistan. The latter, of course, does not admit it, but the author speculates that Pakistan had probably held back the names of six or seven Indian POWs from the International Red Cross in 1972-74 when the exchange of prisoners took place. It apparently did so as an insurance against India (which had captured 90000 POWs in Bangladesh) acceding to the Bangladesh demand to hand over about a hundred Pakistani soldiers and officers to stand trial for atrocities committed. Ultimately, of course, this demand was dropped on the condition that Pakistan recognize this new country, which it did. But Pakistan has never accepted that it had given an incomplete list of POWs, or that some still remain in its jails. India’s frosty relations with the country do not make it easy to negotiate a solution to this vexed issue.

  But the issue of the missing Indian POWs, including Captain Bakshi, in Pakistani jails continues to haunt their families. Anecdotal evidence continues to surface from time to time of their presence in Pakistani jails. These include notes and letters smuggled out by some POW; one such letter by a Major Suri to his father from a jail in Karachi mentions that there are a total of twenty Indian POWs in that jail. An ordinary Indian criminal who had spent ten years in a Pakistani jail, told Indian officials when he was repatriated in June 1978 that he had met an Indian army officer named Kamal Bakshi in jail. There are even reports and eye witness accounts that Pakistan had sent some Indian POWs to Oman, but  neither the Indian nor the Oman governments have ever confirmed this. 

  Kamal’s parents have since passed away, waiting for their only son to somehow, miraculously, come walking down the driveway of their house in remote Mcluskieganj in Bihar. His sisters, Kiki and Niki, continue to pursue efforts to find out the truth about the soldier his country forgot, to attain that closure which has eluded them for the last 55 years. Successive Indian governments seem to have given up on our missing POWs even as they vigorously pursue extraditions of criminals and hunt anti-nationals abroad; even if a fraction of these resources and energy were to be spent on tracing out our missing soldiers it would provide comfort to their grieving families. A soldier, if alive, has the right to be acknowledged and protected by his nation, and if dead, the right to an honourable grave in his own country. This is all the closure that his sisters and friends want. They somehow hold on to the assurance given by the Buddha:

author

The author retired from the IAS in December 2010. A keen environmentalist and trekker he has published a book on high altitude trekking in the Himachal Himalayas: THE TRAILS LESS TRAVELLED. He writes for various publications and websites on the environment, governance and social issues. He divides his time between Delhi and his cottage in a small village above Shimla. His second book- SPECTRE OF CHOOR DHAR is a collection of short stories based in Himachal and was published in July 2019. His third book was released in August 2020: POLYTICKS, DEMOCKRAZY AND MUMBO JUMBO is a compilation of satirical and humorous articles on the state of our nation. His fourth book was published on 6th July 2021. Titled INDIA: THE WASTED YEARS , the book is a chronicle of missed opportunities in the last nine years. Shukla’s fifth book – THE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER’S DOG AND OTHER COLLEAGUES- was released on 12th September 2023. It portrays the lighter side of life in the IAS and in Himachal.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 13

As many as 24 medals for gallantry and 62 medals for distinguished service were awarded to Army personnel at the investiture of Western Command held in Chandimandir and New Delhi on January 12 and 13. Twentysix units were felicitated with Unit Citations for their performance in operational and administrative duties.

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar, presented the distinguished service awards and unit citations at a function held at Chandimandir on Friday.

He later interacted with the awardees and their families. A number of families of gallantry awardees who had made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty were also invited to the ceremony and were felicitated, a defence spokespersons said here today. On Saturday, the second phase of the investiture was held at the Cariappa Parade Ground in Delhi Cantonment, where the Army Commander presented gallantry awards, including the Yudh Sewa Medal.

The Army Commander conveyed the gratitude of the nation to the families of the bravehearts. He also exhorted all ranks to continue their pursuit for professional excellence and remain committed to the security of the nation.

The award ceremony in Delhi was preceded by an impressive parade consisting of eight marching contingents of the Army, including an all-woman combined marching contingent from the Armed Forces Medical Services and the Corps of Military Police.

Ajay Banerjee

With Indian sea trade facing increased threats from Somalian pirates and Yemen-based Houthi rebels, the Indian Navy has heightened its presence in the Arabian Sea and is now fielding its biggest peace-time deployment at sea. Its warships are aided by live feed from powerful long-range UAVs and maritime surveillance planes that keep a 24×7 eye on the sea trade routes. India’s 95 per cent trade and more than 80 per cent of its hydrocarbon imports — crude and natural gas — are routed through the sea. Also, with more than four million fishermen, India is the second largest fish-producing nation in the world. In these past six weeks, the Navy has gone up from having two warships, positioned for years in the Gulf of Aden and at the mouth of Persian Gulf, to fielding 12 ships on patrol duties in the Arabian Sea. According to Vice Admiral AK Chawla (retd), former Southern Navy Commander, “The deployment, by numbers, is unprecedented”. It also signifies a strategic step-up to join the ‘global high table’ as nations are pumping in resources — warships, men and planes — to tackle the threats from pirate ships.

Indian Navy reacted in early December and started adding numbers to its existing patrolling duties in the Arabian Sea. By the third week of December, it had a fleet of five warships. In the later part of December, a series of attacks on Indian interests occurred, triggering another round of additions by the Navy, taking the number to 12 warships.

Capt Sarabjeet Singh Parmar, who retired from the Indian Navy and is now a Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Military History and Conflict Studies, United Service Institution of India, says, “At any given time, the Navy has several ships deployed in our areas of interest. Mission-based deployments now stretch across the Indo-Pacific”

Strong signal from India

The deployment, by numbers, is unprecedented. It is sending a strong signal that India is keen to ensure free flow of trade not just for itself but all others too… So far, our position is consistent that military ops will be only under UN mandate. — Vice Admiral AK Chawla(retd), former Southern-Navy Commander

On December 23, MV Chem Pluto destined for Mangalore refinery from Al Jubail Port in Saudi Arabia was hit, 400 km west of India. The US said the merchant vessel was ‘hit by a one-way drone’. A day later, MV Sai Baba, a Gabon-owned Indian-flagged crude oil tanker, destined for India, reported that it was hit in the southern Red Sea. All this while, the government craftily steered away from joining the US-led multi-nation coalition conducting ‘Operation Prosperity Guardian’ in the Red Sea. In the wee hours of January 12, the coalition launched air strikes on Yemen. Had India joined the coalition, it would have dented its position of neutrality. Since 2008, when the Navy first started anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, the governments of Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi, respectively, stayed away from any military coalition to protect the sea trade routes.

The operation in action

Navy created two separate ‘task groups’. Each of the Indian warships carries helicopters, teams of Marine Commandos (MARCOS), relief material and are connected via satellite to the operations room of the Navy. All equipment to launch an attack on land, at sea or thwart an attack, is on board. The ships are connected via satellite.

The fleet of maritime surveillance planes, Boeing P8I and MQ9B UAVs are on duty for constant surveillance from air. These scan the area and provide live feed to the naval operations’ room on land.

Thanks to the separate agreements with the US and Oman on logistics sharing, naval warships have the option of re-fuelling at US bases in Bahrain and Djibouti, the latter on the east coast of Africa, besides the port of Duqm, Oman. The Navy also has its own fleet of ‘tankers’, carrying fuel and rations, to be supplied mid-sea to the warships.

At land, in Gurugram, the Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) processes maritime information from 25 partner countries, including the US, France, Italy, Oman, Kenya, the Seychelles and South Africa. This provides information on vessels of interest and allows naval armies to secure the global sea routes. In June 2022, India joined the Bahrain-headquartered 39-nation Combined Maritime Force.

Suspicious rogue ships

Captains on Navy ships out at sea have been tasked to keep an eye out for rogue ships sailing mid-sea as these are suspected to be used by pirates to launch attacks and could have possibly been used to launch drones.

Pirate attacks are taking place far from the coast, leading to suspicion of rogue ships being out there. In the past two weeks, MARCOS of the Navy have boarded suspicious vessels and searched these for pirates, guns and weapons. In a statement on January 3, Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said, “In the past one week, task groups deployed in the area have investigated a large number of fishing vessels and boarded vessels”.

The December 23 attack on MV Chem Pluto added to doubts about a rouge ship. The merchant ship got hit some 400 km west of India, off the coast of Porbandar, Gujarat. The spot was 926 km from the Iranian coast. The Yemen coast is 1,592 km from the site. A strike that far out at sea would need high-end technology, or else a rogue ship launched it. The attack on MV Lila Norfolk on January 4 took place 850 km east of Africa’s Somalian coast, again indicating that a rogue ship was being used by the pirates.

A probe into the hijacking of MV Ruen on December 14 said, “Somali pirates hijacked a dhow (small ship) operating off Somalia and utilised the same for hijacking MV Ruen.”

Since October 17 last year, Houthi rebels, based out of Yemen, have allegedly attacked merchant ships and also the US warships in the Red Sea. The US Central Command, headquartered at Bahrain, in a tweet on January 12, mentioned a missile attack on January 11, saying, “This is the 27th Houthi attack on international shipping since November 19.”

Yemen sits at the eastern edge of narrow straits of Bab-el-Mandab, which connect the Arabian Sea with the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal-Red Sea alignment. Pirates based out of Somalia in East Africa have upped their game.

Adding to the costs

All this has added to the operating cost for shipping companies and for naval forces in keeping the trade routes secure. Shipping on the Asia-Europe-US trade route via the Red Sea stands disrupted, pushing up the insurance costs. A majority of merchant vessels are now using longer routes for the Asia-Europe-US trade, and that is via South Africa. It is 10 days longer than the traditional Suez Canal route, which means more manpower and fuel cost, besides slowing down shipping.

In mid-December, four major shipping companies, which account for half the global maritime trade, stopped using the Red Sea route, which goes through the Suez Canal. The 193-km-long canal accounts for 12 per cent of the global trade, including 30 per cent of all container movement.

The London-headquartered International Chamber of Shipping says some 11 billion tonnes of goods are transported by shipping globally each year. This represents 1.5 tonnes per person, based on the current global population.

Each year, the shipping industry transports nearly 2 billion tonnes of crude oil, 1 billion tonnes of iron ore — the raw material needed to create steel — and 350 million tonnes of grain, says the Chamber.

New law on piracy

The Maritime Anti-Piracy Act 2022 — the first domestic law to empower Indian authorities and courts to deal with piracy and pirate ships on the high seas — was passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 2022.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, speaking at the passing of the Act, said in Parliament, “Ensuring maritime security is key to safeguarding India’s security and economic well-being.”

The Act allows Indian authorities to take action against piracy in the high seas, including the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India, the EEZ of any other state, as well as all waters beyond the jurisdiction of any other state — that is international waters. EEZ is an area of the ocean between 22 km and 370 km from the coastline of India.

Proactive role

In October 2008, India sent its first anti-piracy patrol to the Gulf of Aden.

“India was one of the first nations to deploy a ship on anti-piracy patrols. Subsequent ships were deployed based on the requirement as threats evolved and challenges posed over a period of time,” adds Capt Parmar.

In January 2009, India became a founding member of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), which was set up as a group of nations, industry associations and multilateral agencies to check piracy in the Indian Ocean region through a UN Security Council resolution.

The Indian Navy and Coast Guard have provided armed naval escorts to ships moving in the area. Merchant ships are escorted along the entire length — 907 km long and 37 km wide — Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) in the Gulf of Aden.

In 2011, piracy shifted eastwards towards India, increasing what is Additional War Risk Premium (AWRP) on insurance. The Navy ramped up and took aggressive action to drive away the pirates. The Defence Ministry proposed a proactive role under the United Nations flag to tackle the threat to maritime traffic from piracy.

“India is in favour of strengthening multilateral cooperation under a UN framework to meet the complex challenges of maritime security,” said the Annual Report for 2010-11 of the Ministry of Defence laid before Parliament.

New Delhi, January 13

In a major step towards thwarting Pakistan’s attempts to increase terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Army is launching Operation Sarvashakti, where the security forces will be targeting the terrorists operating on both sides of the Pir Panjal mountain ranges in the UT.

In recent times, Pakistani proxy terrorist groups have tried to revive terrorism in the South of Pir Panjal ranges, especially in the Rajouri Poonch sector, where around 20 troops have been killed in attacks by terrorists, with the latest being on December 21, when four soldiers were killed in the Dera ki Gali area there.

Search operations underway in Poonch

• Massive search operations are underway in Poonch district on Saturday to track down terrorists who had fired on a convoy of Army vehicles a day ago
• Troops are using sniffer dogs to track the terrorists
• Lt Gen Navin Sachdeva, GOC, White Knight Corps, met Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhavan and briefed him on the current security situation in the Poonch area

“Operation Sarvashakti would be to carry out combined counter-terrorist operations from both sides of the Pir Panjal ranges where the formations of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps along with the Nagrota-headquartered White Knight Corps would be carrying out simultaneous operations,” sources in the security forces said.

“The Jammu and Kashmir Police, CRPF, Special Operations Group, and the intelligence agencies would be working in close coordination to thwart Pakistani designs to revive terrorist activities in the UT, especially in the Rajouri Poonch sector,” they added.

The operations are expected to be on the lines of Operation Sarpvinash, which was launched in 2003 to eliminate terrorists from the same areas in the South of Pir Panjal range.

Army Chief General Manoj Pande recently stated that terrorist activities had almost vanished in the area since 2003, but the western adversary is now trying to revive it there.He along with the Northern Command had also held detailed discussions with the Corps Commanders on ways to tackle the threat from these terrorists.

Muizzu’s comments come amid a diplomatic row with India over derogatory social media posts by three of his ministers against PM Modi

Beijing/Male, January 13

Returning home after a five-day high-profile state visit to China, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on Saturday struck a defiant note saying that his country may be small but “doesn’t give them the licence to bully us”.

His comments came amid a diplomatic row with India over derogatory social media posts by three of his ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We may be small but this doesn’t give them the license to bully us,” Muizzu, who is regarded as a pro-China leader, said without naming any country.

“Though we have small islands in this ocean, we have a vast exclusive economic zone of 9,00,000 square km. Maldives is one of the countries with the biggest share of this ocean,” he told the media on his arrival from China after concluding the State visit, the first after assuming office in November last year.

“This ocean does not belong to a specific country. This (Indian) Ocean also belongs to all countries situated in it,” he said, in an apparent jibe at India.

“We aren’t in anyone’s backyard. We are an independent and sovereign state,” he was quoted as saying by the Maldives Sun Online portal.

During his visit to China, Muizzu held talks with President Xi Jinping after which the two countries signed 20 agreements.

“The two sides agree to continue firmly supporting each other in safeguarding their respective core interests,” said a joint statement issued at the end of Muizzu’s talks with the top Chinese leaders.

“China firmly supports the Maldives in upholding its national sovereignty, independence and national dignity, respects and supports the Maldives’ exploration of a development path that suits its national conditions, and firmly opposes external interference in the internal affairs of the Maldives,” the statement said, without referring to any country.

In his media briefing in Male, Muizzu said China has granted USD 130 million in assistance for his country.

Muizzu said the bulk of the USD 130 million assistance will be spent on redeveloping the roads in Male, where the mayor election is being held on Saturday.

He was the former Mayor of the capital city before getting elected to the Presidency in November last year.

“That is approximately USD 130 million in grants. This will be spent on developmental projects. The biggest spending will be on the development of the roads of Male,” he was quoted as saying by local news portal Sun Online.

Also, China’s Ambassador to Maldives Wang Lixin said Maldives will receive support for more development projects from Beijing if they align with President Xi’s initiatives.

Wang, who accompanied Muizzu on his visit to China, said there are three key factors to the strong relations between Maldives and China.

“The first and most important factor is mutual political trust. The second factor is to strengthen the docking of President Xi’s initiatives and the national development strategy of President Muizzu. And with this docking, I think we can decide on more projects that benefit the Maldivian people,” she said.

Wang said that the third one is to follow the principle of extensive consultation, joint construction, and also shared benefits. “I think that with these three key factors, we will have a very fruitful and sustainable cooperation in the future,” she said.

“During this visit, the two heads of state have announced the elevation of our bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership. This will provide a strong political guarantee for the future cooperation between the two countries,” the Sun Online said, quoting her interview.

Muizzu’s visit to China was marred by the diplomatic row with India over derogatory remarks by his ministers against Prime Minister Modi and the release of a report by the EU Election Observation Mission of Maldives that said the ruling coalition of Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and the People’s National Congress (PNC) deployed anti-India sentiments and attempted to spread disinformation in the 2023 presidential elections in which Muizzu won.

The EU report cast a shadow over Muizzu’s Presidential election last November as he contested as part of PPM headed at that time by former pro-China President Abdullah Yameen, who is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption.

During Muizzu’s visit to Beijing, the two countries signed a USD 50 million agreement to develop an integrated tourism zone in Hulhumale’ besides building 30,000 social housing units in Rasmale’.

China will also provide grant assistance for the development of a 100-bed tertiary hospital in Vilimale’, the report said.

The India-built Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) in Male is regarded as the biggest in the country.

The 300-bed hospital was built in 1992 by India well before China made its presence in the island nation with infrastructure projects. The IGMH was remodified with Indian assistance in 2018 with the addition of more diagnostic and treatment facilities.

During Muizzu’s visit to China, the two countries also signed an agreement to allow Maldives’ national airline, Maldivian, to conduct domestic flight operations in China.