Did India ‘buy’ 28 islands from Maldives? Fact Check

Posted by: Arun Nag August 14, 2024

Claim: India bought 28 islands from Maldives and President Muizzu handed them over to India’s EAM Jaishankar.

Conclusion: Misleading. India never bought 28 islands but Maldives has handed them over to India for implementation of water and sewerage projects.

Rating: Misleading —

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Ever since the change of government in Maldives, the bilateral relations took a dive but recently, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited the island nation and concluded several pacts with the new government of Maldives under President Mohamed Muizzu, seen as a pro-China leader.

After the visit of Jaishankar, social media posts have surfaced with a claim that India has “bought” 28 islands from the archipelagic state.

Other X users claimed, “India bought 28 islands from Maldives. Maldives handover its 28 Islands to India. President Muizzu himself signed the agreement.” Another user wrote: “The magic of 50 metres walk on Lakshadweep beach and one tweet,” referring to the PM Modi’s visit to Lakshadweep islands earlier this year.

 

 

Same claim is being shared here:

FACT CHECK:

Since buying islands by India is never heard of in the past, Digiteye India quickly ran a Google search for the relevant information and found that it was a misleading claim. The news reports on Jaishankar’s visit reveal that the three-day visit came at a crucial juncture when Maldives was seen moving closer to China.

In fact, India has been in talks with the government of Maldives in the past and offered to implement several water and sewerage projects in these 28 islands. The visit of Indian foreign minister finalised these projects and accordingly, the host government has handed over the islands for implementation of the water projects to provide the dire needs of the island nation.

Jaishankar has announced the project in his tweets as well, confirming the news reports:

The news report says Jai shanker inaugurated water and sewerage network in Maldives along with  President Muizzu. The project connects 28 islands in the Maldives and they are built with loans from the Indian EXIM Bank. In addition, India has undertaken other community-focussed projects liek mental health, street lightning among others.

Even Maldives President Miuzzu tweeted about the event and thanked the Indian government for strengthening bilateral relations.

 

Hence, the claim that India bought these 28 islands is false as these islands are handed over to implement water and sewerage projects.

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About Arun Nag

Arun is with Digiteye India since the beginning as the main source for re-writing copies and re-checking the facts and images. He writes on general and tech issues. He can be reached at arunnag@digiteye.in