Pro-China candidate wins Maldives presidency

The Maldives occupies a strategically important position on one of the world’s busiest east-west shipping lanes in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Muizzu’s mentor, former President Abdullah Yameen, borrowed heavily from China for construction projects and spurned India.

Solih was elected in 2018 out of dissatisfaction with Yameen’s increasingly autocratic rule, accusing him of pushing the country into a Chinese debt trap.

Yameen’s stance toward Beijing had also worried New Delhi, which shares concerns with the United States and its allies about China’s growing aggressiveness in the Indian Ocean.

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