MALE: Indian leader Narendra Modi yesterday inaugurated a coastal radar system and military training centre in the Maldives yesterday, as New Delhi seeks to fend off Chinese influence in the strategically-placed nation. The Maldives, a low-lying archipelago of more than a thousand tiny coral islands south of the Indian subcontinent, straddles the world's busiest east-west maritime route.

India, the
country's traditional ally, had watched former strongman leader Abdulla
Yameen's growing political and financial reliance on Beijing with unease.  But Yameen's election loss last September has
seen the new administration under President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih gravitate
back to the nation's traditional benefactors in New Delhi.

Modi and Solih
inaugurated the training facility yesterday, officials said, adding that both
projects cost New Delhi $26 million. A joint statement said the two sides
discussed the need to maintain peace and security in the Indian Ocean region. The
leaders pledged to combat piracy, terrorism, organized crime and trafficking
through "coordinated patrolling and aerial surveillance, exchange of
information, and capacity building," the statement said.

Modi is making
his second trip to the Maldives in less than seven months. The two-day visit is
also Modi's first foreign visit since taking the oath of office for his second
term after an emphatic election win in May. Under Modi's leadership, India
earlier this year granted a $800 million line of credit to the Maldives, which
remains heavily indebted to Beijing. The Indian premier next travels to
neighboring Sri Lanka, where he will hold talks with political leaders during a
brief stopover.- AFP