The Maldives Is a Tiny Paradise. Why Are China and India Fighting Over It?

       Asia’s two giants are crowding the island nation with building projects, tossing its newborn democracy to and fro.

       Malé, the capital and most populous city of the Maldives.

       The Maldives Is a Tiny Paradise. Why Are China and India Fighting Over It?

       Asia’s two giants are crowding the island nation with building projects, tossing its newborn democracy to and fro.

       Malé, the capital and most populous city of the Maldives.Credit...

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       By Alex Travelli and Maahil Mohamed

       Photographs by Elke Scholiers

       Reporting from Malé and Hanimaadhoo in the Maldives

       March 5, 2024

       Between a few flecks of coral in the Indian Ocean, a ribbon of highway more than a mile long swoops up from the blue. Since 2018, the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge has connected this archipelago’s hyper-dense capital, Malé, and the international airport — expanded by Chinese companies — one island to the east.

       But China is not alone in chasing friendship with the Maldives. A 20-minute walk across the capital, next to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, an even longer sea bridge will link Malé with islands to the west. This one is being built by Indian workers, with money from India.

       The Maldives, a tiny tourism-dependent country of 500,000 people, barely registers as a blip alongside India and China, the world’s most populous nations. Yet every blip counts in the two giants’ competition for influence across South Asia, and that has set the Maldives on a zigzagging course between them.

       India, at the heart of the vast region, has long been its most powerful economic and military force. Still, China has made significant inroads with its much larger financial resources, signing infrastructure deals and securing access to ports in countries surrounding India.

       Image

       Showering after a swim, with the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge in the distance.

       Image

       Construction of another bridge, this one funded by India.

       The map locates the Maldives, an archipelago off the southwest coast of India. It also locates the Lakshadweep archipelago, north of the Maldives.

       CHINA

       PAKISTAN

       NEPAL

       New Delhi

       INDIA

       Arabian

       Sea

       Bay of Bengal

       LAKSHADWEEP

       SRI

       LANKA

       Hanimaadhoo

       Malé

       MALDIVEs

       Indian Ocean

       300 MILES

       By The New York Times

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       Alex Travelli is a correspondent for The Times based in New Delhi, covering business and economic matters in India and the rest of South Asia. He previously worked as an editor and correspondent for The Economist. More about Alex Travelli

       A version of this article appears in print on March 6, 2024, Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Why India and China Are Vying for the Tiny Maldives . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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