Week before ouster,faced pressure to sign defence deal with China: Nasheed

Nasheed was under pressure from his armed forces to sign a defence agreement with China.

A week before he was ousted,former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed was under pressure from his armed forces to sign a defence agreement with China,a pact that he had been refusing to clear for the past three months.

Nasheed told The Indian Express that senior defence officers gave him an ultimatum saying that you have to sign the agreement. Nasheed,whose government signed a defence agreement in 2009 that practically brought the island nation into Indias security grid,stood firm against any pact with Beijing.

I had the paper on my desk two weeks back to approve the agreement. The MNDF (Maldivian National Defence Force) had sent it three months ago also but I refused to sign it. They sent it again saying that I have to sign it, Nasheed said.

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However,he said,he stood his ground,insisting that he was not in favour of the pact with Beijing. The MNDF played an important part in the coup last week in which Nasheed,the nations first democratically elected president,was deposed in favour of Mohamed Waheed,who is trying to cobble together a coalition government.

There was no point in signing any agreement with China, Nasheed said. While he did not elaborate on what kind of agreement was in the works,Beijing has shown interest in establishing a presence in the island nation that sits astride one of the busiest shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean.