Small States’ foreign policy posers heighten in the wake of US tariff pressures

The multiple and multidimensional pressures piling up on developing countries currently ought to prompt a 'revisit' to the foundational pillars of foreign policy making in the South in particular by foreign affairs commentators.

- BY LYNN OCKERSZ

The immediate 'trigger' to such a reexamination is the exceedingly fluid nature of what a country would come to recognize as its best interests or national interest at present.

There is the case of the Maldives, for instance, which is making a marked change in its regional policy and preferring to reinvigorate its ties with India. The recent visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Maldives and the warm welcome accorded to him by the Malidivian authorities bore eloquent testimony to this regional policy reset by the archipelago.

However, it was not so long ago that the Muizzu administration campaigned hard for a distancing of the Maldives from India in favour of closer ties with China. But crunch time has come with the economic pressures stemming from the US-inspired import tariff tangle beginning to pinch hard and the archipelago is seeing it to be in its interests to strengthen ties with India, which is of course the biggest economic power in the region. That is, the Maldives is seeing it be in its national interest at present to achieve equidistance between India and China in foreign relations.

So urgent is the need on the part of the Maldives to reset ties with India that the Maldives has opted for the crafting of a Free Trade Agreement between the countries. While in the Maldives Prime Minister Modi promised among other things: 'India will continue to support the Maldives in developing its defence capabilities. Peace, stability and prosperity in the Indian Ocean region is our common goal.'