Home to half a million people and measuring just 115 square miles of land distributed over nearly 1,200 inhabited and uninhabited islands, the Maldives is Asia’s smallest country by both population and landmass. However, given its location a few hundred miles south-southwest of India – from where it overlooks some of the world’s busiest sea lanes, which link resource and energy hungry Asian markets with the Middle East – the tiny island nation is of far greater geostrategic significance than its diminutive size might suggest.

Accordingly, the history of these islands has been shaped to a great extent by powerful empires that have recognised their significance and sought to exploit their strategic value. With China now actively attempting to secure greater control of the Indian Ocean region as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, India and China are finding themselves jostling for influence in Malé, the country’s densely populated capital, as part of the broader Sino-Indian competition for dominance in South Asia which is increasingly coming to structure the region politically.

While India has enjoyed a period of considerable influence since the Maldivian Democratic Party’s Ibrahim Mohamed Solih replaced Abdulla Yameen’s pro-China Progressive Party of Maldives, it now looks likely that the country is swinging away from its neighbour and back into China’s orbit. Though Yameen was unable to stand for election due to his recent conviction on corruption charges, Mohamed Muizzu, Malé’s popular Mayor, ran as the party’s candidate and secured 46 per cent of the vote compared to Solih’s 39 per cent.