Recently, the former Maldivian President Nasheed made a large number of false remarks in the Indian media to discredit the practical cooperation between China and Maldives and alleged that China engaged in the so-called "land grabbing" of Maldivian Islands，which undermines the security of the Indian Ocean region. Mr. Nasheed’s remarks are fabricated in disregard of facts. The cooperation between China and Maldives is in the interests of both sides which cannot be denigrated by one-side individual remarks.

In recent years, China and Maldives have conducted a series of mutually beneficial livelihood projects in the principle of mutual respect and equality. The hardworking Chinese employees work day and night to help the Maldivians further upgrade their infrastructure and improve livelihood so as to realize the mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. The economic and social development of Maldives has made remarkable progress and the living standards of the people have been improved, which the international community including China is happy to see. The false remarks such as "island grabbing"，" occupation of land" and "undermining the security of the region" seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and are completely contrary to the actual situation. Public statistics show that in the recent 4 years, foreign companies from 30 countries have invested in 124 tourist islands in the Maldives. Chinese companies have planned to invest no more than 7 tourist islands in the Maldives, ranking sixth among all foreign investments, and accounting for only 5.65% of total number of investment projects. As per available data source, Chinese companies are only involved in few number of tourist resorts islands in operation among over 100 tourist islands in the Maldives. The information which Mr. Nasheed mentioned is seriously inconsistent with the basic fact.

China has conducted friendly and mutual-beneficial cooperation with current and previous governments of the Maldives. The cooperation like housing projects, Lamuu link road already started during the tenure of Mr. Nasheed. It is believed that Mr. Nasheed himself has the personal experience to the benefits brought by the China-Maldives cooperation to the people of the Maldives. Why did Mr. Nasheed support this normal economic and trade cooperation during his tenure and now turn to be strongly opposed to it? Why even now fabricates to discredit the normal bilateral cooperation between the two countries? These doubts remain in the mind of the Chinese side.

China and Maldives jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative under the principle of wide consultation, joint contribution and mutual benefit, which benefits the people of the two countries and accords with the interests of two peoples. The Chinese side will steadily move forward the construction of major projects including China-Maldives Friendship Bridge according to the consensus of the two leaders of the two countries. We hope this will benefit the life of the Maldivian people at an early date. The Chinese side sincerely hopes Mr. Nasheed to have a clear picture of the situation and view China-Maldives cooperation in an objective, fair and balanced way, and stop making false remarks. It is also hoped that Mr. Nasheed could proceed from a long-term perspective and do more positive contributions to the development of the bilateral relationship.

The Chinese side regards what happens now in the Maldives falls within that country's internal affairs. The international community should play a constructive role on the basis of respecting the Maldives' sovereignty and will rather than take actions that may complicate the situation. We believe that Maldivian government, parties and people have the wisdom and capability to stabilize the situation. We hope various parties properly resolve the differences through dialogue and negotiation to maintain the nation and the people’s life stable.

Statement by Chinese Embassy in Male’, Maldives