"We may be small, but that doesn’t right anyone to bully us," says Mohamed Muizzu

New Delhi : President Mohamed Muizzu returned after his five-day visit to China on January 13th. Soon after his return, he said that Maldives may be a small island nation, but that does not allow others to bully the country.

During his comments, he also noted that Indian Ocean does not belong to any one country and Maldives is not anyone’s backyard.

Though the president has not named any country, it is believed that the comments were targeted towards India, with which the bilateral relations of Maldives are tensed since the election of Mr Muizzu in September.

Soon after his election as Maldivian president, he had asked India to remove their military troops from the nation. In a recent, a new strain was seen between India and Maldives after a couple of junior ministers in his administration released derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indians on social media, resulting in people asking to boycott to travel to Maldives.

Interestingly, when #BoycottMaldives was trending on social media, Mr Muizzu urged Chinese tourists to reclaim the top spot in the arrivals, which has been held by Indians for the last two years now. For the same he has signed nearly 20 MoUs between Maldives and China.