On January 10, China and the Maldives upgraded their bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.
China and the Maldives are traditional friendly neighbors, and the peoples of the two countries have established friendly ties through the ancient Maritime Silk Road. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia 52 years ago, the two countries have always respected and supported each other, setting an example of countries big and small treating each other as equals, helping each other and achieving mutual benefit and win-win results.
However, some Westerners have rehashed the so-called "debt trap" tune, claiming that this will affect the long-term development of the Maldives. This is not the case. The Maldives' external debt comes mainly from multilateral financial institutions, not from China. In fact, China's aid has brought tangible benefits to the local people.
In recent years, the relations between the two countries have developed in depth, and the Belt and Road Initiative and exchanges and cooperation in various fields have achieved fruitful results. With the joint efforts of both sides, major projects such as the China-Malaysia Friendship Bridge, the reconstruction and expansion of Velana International Airport, and tens of thousands of social housing units have been completed, which have greatly facilitated the travel of local people, improved the tourism reception and air transport capacity of the Maldives, improved the living conditions of the local people, brought a transformative impact on the national development of the Maldives, and brought tangible benefits to the people of the Maldives.
In 2019, China was already the largest foreign tourist** country in the Maldives, with Chinese tourists accounting for about 20% of its total foreign tourists. With the resumption of Chinese outbound travel, Chinese tourists are expected to increase rapidly and return to pre-pandemic levels this year.
As Muiz of the Maldives said, China is one of the Maldives' closest development partners.
Muiz, together with a number of important cabinet ministers, paid his first state visit to China and became the first foreign head of state to be received by China this year, which fully reflects the great importance that both sides attach to the development of China-Malaysia relations.
China and Malaysia will take the opportunity of building a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to strengthen cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and investment, agricultural parks, blue economy, green economy and digital economy, expand cooperation in marine ecological and environmental protection, strengthen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, promote more new development in Malaysia-China relations, and create more benefits for the two peoples.
This article is translated from an editorial in China** on January 11.
Original title: China respectful partner of the maldives
Produced by: China's ** Editorial Office.
*: China**Net.