The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu, will pay a state visit to China from Jan. 8 to 12, the Chinese foreign ministry said in statement on Friday, in what would be a high-profile snub to the island nation’s huge neighbour India.
Multiple calls by Reuters to the Foreign Ministry and President’s Office in Male on Friday – the weekend in the Maldives – to confirm the president’s trip went unanswered.

Muizzu, who in November took over as president of the Indian Ocean nation made up of more than a hundred islands dotted with luxury resorts, issued an election pledge to remove a small contingent of some 75 Indian military personnel in the country and alter the Maldives’s “India first” policy.

Asked to comment on Thursday about talk of President Muizzu making a state visit to China, New Delhi said the matter was out of its hands.

[It seems Maldives is also in the hole to China for $1.3B, give or take. That’s that Chinese honey-trap money. In fuel to the fire, apparently 3 Maldivian ministers also got mouthy about PM Moi, Hindus, and India in general. They’ve since been suspended by the president of Maldives, but not before causing a yuge amount on angst in India, and what is looking to be a pretty big tourism boycott. As of this morning, reports I’ve seen mention 10,500 Hotel bookings & 5,520 flight tickets canceled so far. ~ Beege]