It has been a busy month for the Maldives. The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, paid a visit and announced that America is finally opening an embassy in the country after over a half-century of diplomatic ties. Shortly after, the Indian Foreign Secretary, Harsh Shringla, visited to sign a $100 million top-up grant for a $500m infrastructure project to link the capital to surrounding islands. The close timing of these trips is not a coincidence.
It reflects a shared Indian and American determination to compete with China’s deep pockets as it tries to establish firm footholds across the Indian Ocean. For a country like the Maldives, with limited resources and vulnerable to climate change, peaceful attention from the great powers is potentially advantageous. But it can also bring pitfalls. There are no signs of existing US and Indian military tensions with China abating, from the Himalayas to the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea. The Maldives is only likely to remain grateful as long as this competition remains confined to aid and investment.
The high stakes make sense as soon as you look at the sea lanes. The Indian Ocean has always been the maritime equivalent of the Silk Road, connecting East and West, with its many legacies of trade and travel. Historically, this has made it strategically vital for the West.
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Trincomalee in Sri Lanka became the Royal Navy’s East Indies headquarters in 1813, guarding the passage between Suez and Singapore for 150 years. As independent Sri Lanka’s politics grew more non-aligned, Britain shifted to RAF Gan in the Maldives and later to Diego Garcia in the disputed Chagos Archipelago, just south of the Maldives. Britain remained the pre-eminent power in the region until its withdrawal in 1971, leaving a vacuum filled by the US, and by the 1980s, India.
The seamless transition meant that the Maldives was largely untroubled by the Cold War, leaving it a free hand to manage its difficult but remarkably rapid economic and social change. At the time of its independence in 1965 it was a scattered grouping of traditional fishing villages. It is now an upper-middle-income economy driven by high-end international tourism. It has also evolved from a sultanate, to an authoritarian republic, to a now flourishing democracy. Altogether, it is one of the unsung success stories of South Asia and the Muslim world.
The last decade has, however, been a time of profound geopolitical change that this time around refuses to bypass the region. China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative seeks to integrate the economies of nations across the Eurasian land-mass and Indian Ocean with its own in order to realise the "Chinese Dream". The result, especially during the 2013-2018 rule of the Maldives' former president, Abdulla Yameen, was an influx of billions of dollars in loans and investment. During the Yameen years, unfortunately, negotiations on many of these deals were largely opaque. Critics say the results were not always in the public interest.
The same period also saw a more assertive Chinese foreign policy, intended to definitively end a period that China calls the “Century of Humiliation” at the hands of colonial powers. The key objective of this policy is restoring China to what it sees as its rightful place in the global order.
It is fair to say that the US has reacted strongly, perceiving this as a direct threat to its economic, technological and military dominance in the world. Former president Barack Obama’s toughening stance saw a doubling down under his successor, Donald Trump. All signs point to this continuing under the incoming Biden administration.
India, although initially keen to develop its economy in tandem with China's, now also shares American concerns, as do traditional US allies in the region, such as Australia and Japan. One of the uppermost priorities for this bloc is working together to keep as many Indian Ocean states aligned with them as possible. An unmistakable signal for this policy is the renaming of the US military's Pacific Command to "Indo-Pacific Command" in May 2018.
The Maldives, with its strategic location and heavy Chinese investments, is naturally at the top of the list of countries that the US and India want to keep on their side. Relations with India have always been good, but New Delhi's generosity is now reaching new heights. This could not have come at a better time. The Maldives' tourism-driven economy has shrunk by 30 per cent due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even though India is itself struggling with the economic consequences of Covid-19, it has agreed to give $250m in economic support to the Maldives. Meanwhile the $500m Greater Male Connectivity Project will provide much-needed jobs in the short term and, more importantly, ease serious land shortages in the capital where most of the Maldives' population lives.
These investments boost both the political stability of the Maldives and the goodwill of the Maldivian public. It is not at all clear that this kind of assistance would have been offered if the strategic stakes had not been raised. But the benefit to the Maldives from great-power rivalry hinges on two factors.
One is the continuing health of the country's governance. If this were to deteriorate, the enormous quantities of aid given to the country could actually prove politically and financially destabilising. Second, the worrying possibility that the region becomes the site of a military build-up. Not only would this damage tourism, but with such high stakes, the impulse for great powers to interfere in Maldivian politics is likely to sharply increase.
All this would distract from the Maldives’ existential enemy, climate change. The country helped found the Alliance of Small Island States in 1990 to co-ordinate action and Mohammed Nasheed, who served as president from 2008-2012 and who currently heads the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party, famously held a 2009 cabinet meeting underwater in scuba gear to raise awareness of the threat from rising sea levels.
However Sino-American competition in the region might play out, the Maldives must hold its course in the oncoming storm.
Johann Chacko is a writer and South Asia analyst
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
PSA DUBAI WORLD SERIES FINALS LINE-UP
Men’s:
Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY)
Ali Farag (EGY)
Simon Rosner (GER)
Tarek Momen (EGY)
Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL)
Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
Nick Matthew (ENG)
Women's:
Nour El Sherbini (EGY)
Raneem El Welily (EGY)
Nour El Tayeb (EGY)
Laura Massaro (ENG)
Joelle King (NZE)
Camille Serme (FRA)
Nouran Gohar (EGY)
Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Sleep Well Beast
The National
4AD
The biog
Mission to Seafarers is one of the largest port-based welfare operators in the world.
It provided services to around 200 ports across 50 countries.
They also provide port chaplains to help them deliver professional welfare services.
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Profile
Company: Libra Project
Based: Masdar City, ADGM, London and Delaware
Launch year: 2017
Size: A team of 12 with six employed full-time
Sector: Renewable energy
Funding: $500,000 in Series A funding from family and friends in 2018. A Series B round looking to raise $1.5m is now live.
BRIEF SCORES:
Toss: Nepal, chose to field
UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23
Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17
Result: UAE won by 21 runs
Series: UAE lead 1-0
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
Honeymoonish
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