CNA Correspondent Podcast: Paradise in peril? The environmental and political future of the Maldives
The Maldives is in the eye of two storms – threatened by climate change and caught in a tussle between India and China.
Mining the deep reporting of CNA's correspondents, Teresa Tang goes behind the scenes with journalists on the frontlines to unpack the biggest Asian and global stories.
The Maldives is increasingly making headlines for the negative impact climate change is having on its pristine environment. It’s also catching the attention of world superpowers for its political significance.
In this week’s episode, Teresa Tang unpacks the archipelago’s challenges with CNA's Afifah Ariffin.
Here's an excerpt from the podcast:
Teresa Tang: The Pacific islands are at the centre of a geopolitical tug of war between the US and China. And very similar, with the Maldives, right? There's China, India, the US all vying for its attention. How evident is the presence of Beijing in the Maldives?
Afifah Ariffin: The Chinese influence in the Maldives is huge. It's very prominent. You can see it all around the greater Mali area. The Maldivians, are very aware of this power tussle between India and China.
It's something that's been very pervasive in their domestic politics, because this is a narrative that politicians on either side will use, whether you are pro-China or pro-India. And these narratives are featured very heavily in their elections, in their presidential election last year, in their parliamentary elections in April this year.
Ordinary Maldivians are aware ... of the loans that the government has taken from both of these major powers. And it seemed to me that they have very mixed feelings about this.
On one hand, many of them see these investments positively, right? You're bringing in infrastructure, creating jobs and boosting the tourism industry.
And locals do believe that these projects can modernise the country and improve their standards of living. But at this point, the country's economy is not doing well. So the primary concern for a lot of people there is, of course, bread and butter issues. It's a small nation of about half a million people.
They have no natural resources to trade. People are concerned about the long-term implications of such high level of debt to foreign powers, whether it be China or India or, by extension, the United States.
Teresa:
We know so far that the Maldives has borrowed some US$1.5 billion from Chinese banks. That's not a small sum. Where is that money being spent? And how would you describe this relationship? Some are saying the Maldives has walked into a debt trap.
Afifah:
Yeah, that's a lot of money. I think China is the biggest foreign lender to the Maldives. They make up 40 per cent of Maldives’ foreign debt.
Listen to more episodes here.
A new episode of CNA Correspondent drops every Wednesday. Follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for the latest updates.
Have a great topic for us? Drop the team an email at cnapodcasts [at] mediacorp.com.sg
