Maldives Appeals to India For More Tourists | Vantage with Palki Sharma

let's turn to the males now their government seems to be having a rethink after all the anti-india rants after all the insults Mali is now appealing to Indian tourists first their tour operators reached out they started organizing Road shows in Indian cities and now the tourism minister is on the job listen to what he said I'm quoting our people and the government will give a warm welcome to Indian arrivals as the tourism Minister I want to tell Indians to please be part of the males's tourism our economy depends on tourism how about that a personal appeal from the tourism minister of the Maldives which raises two questions one what triggered it and two is it genuine the minister answered the first question himself he said the Malian economy depends on tourism no tourists no revenue and Indian tourists are not traveling to the Maldives not like before just look at the data from last year between between January and April more than 73,000 Indians visited the Maldives and this year just under 44,000 so Indian arrivals are down 42% China the UK and Russia have overtaken India you can thank boycott movements for that in January Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited lakshadweep Islands he also posted pictures of the trip but some maldan ministers insulted the Indian PM of course this triggered a huge backlash in India many tourists said they would boycott the Maldives and looks like they actually are doing it hence Mal's desperation they've set an ambitious Target this year to Welcome 2 million foreign tourists but without India it will be hard which brings us to the second question is the appeal genuine for tourists maybe but it's too early to call this a U-turn by the males they're still looking Beyond India last week a Turkish warship visited the Maldives the ship's Commander also met top maldivian officials including the defense minister and don't look at this Voyage in isolation back in November president Muhammad muu traveled to Turkey it was a huge break from tradition usually malan presidents visit India first after taking office but muu visited turkey instead he also bought Turkish drones the bay rakar tb2 drones for $37 million again this was an escalation because India and turkey do not see I to ey the relationship is largely hostile yet muu bought drones from Turkey same with China he visited the country before traveling to India he also signed a number of deals with them so don't expect mizu's policy to change this is more of a financial appeal and how should India see it so far New Delhi has been patient with muu he asked Indian soldiers to leave the Maldives and India agreed muu had set a deadline for Indian soldiers to withdraw May 10th the deadline which is this Friday around half of the soldiers have already been pulled out the the rest will follow soon so India has shown a lot of Goodwill no criticism no outbursts the response from New Delhi has been measured but has that measured response swayed muu doesn't look like it look like it has India out was a campaign pitch for Muhammad muu a pitch that worked not once but twice the Maldives held parliamentary elections last month mizu's party swept the country they ended up with a super majority in Parliament so why would he pres why would he abandon a winning strategy why would the president do it logic says he won't but politics is a tricky business you campaign in poetry but you govern in pros and that's what muu is doing he talks about decoupling with India but he knows it will be tough it'll take time he wants to do it with minimal blowback hence these appeals and softening rhetoric in fact the malan foreign minister is visiting India this week he will meet India's external affairs minister SJ Shanker it's actually the first high level visit since muu took charge the foreign minister will be arriving on May 9th so just one day before muu deadline expires and this visit should give us an idea about what lies ahead more hostility or a working [Music] relationship first post reports from the world's second largest continent hello I'm Alison MCR a very warm welcome from Durban South Africa we get you the news and the newsmakers from Africa South Africa goes to the polls on the 29th of May I will track the election and bring you ground reports is it the end of the road for the African National Congress and will former president Jacob suumer stage a dramatic comeback from elections to climate change to Innovations and opportunities as the world's attention shifts we report from Africa the heart of the global South join me every weekday live on first [Music] post for

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Id: 0GcY0D0gfu0

Length: 5min 44sec (344 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024