Beijing announced on Wednesday that a military delegation from China has visited Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives to discuss future defense cooperation.
Beijing is attempting to offset India, its strategic adversary for influence, by forging tighter relationships throughout South Asia.
The Maldives announced last week that it had ordered Indian troops stationed in the tiny but strategically located archipelago to leave, and that it had instead inked a “military assistance” agreement with China.
Furthermore, Beijing verified on Wednesday that, from March 4 to 13, a delegation had been to Nepal and Sri Lanka and had a meeting with President Mohamed Muizzu, who is pro-China.
In all three countries, “they exchanged views on military relations and regional security issues of common concern”, the Chinese military said in a statement on its official WeChat account.
The delegation of officials from the Chinese military’s international military cooperation department focused on “in-depth consultations on promoting bilateral defence cooperation”.
“A series of consensus was reached to further enriched defence cooperation between the PLA and the relevant countries,” it added, referring to the Chinese military by its official acronym.
India is suspicious of China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean and its influence in the Maldives, a chain of 1,192 tiny coral islands stretching around 800 kilometres (500 miles) across the equator, as well as in neighbouring Sri Lanka.
Both South Asian island nations are strategically placed halfway along key east-west international shipping routes.
Beijing also enjoys close ties with Nepal, led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, an ex-Maoist guerrilla known by his nom de guerre Prachanda.
