Chinese bridge pushes Maldives deeper in debt: opposition

The Maldives opposition said today that President Abdulla Yameen had pushed the Indian Ocean nation deeper into a Chinese "debt trap" with a new USD 200 million bridge opened just ahead of the country's election.

Yameen commissioned the bridge with a Chinese fireworks display yesterday night amid his campaign for the controversial September 23 vote, ahead of which he has jailed or forced into exile all of his main opponents.

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said the 1.4 kilometre (0.9 mile) three-lane bridge linking the congested capital of Male to the airport island was a symbol of Yameen's "corruption".

"There was huge corruption involved in this deal," MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told AFP in Colombo where he lives in self-imposed exile. "We are getting pushed into the Chinese debt trap." The government has repeatedly denied claims of corruption.

The International Monetary Fund reported that the Maldives' external debt was estimated at 42.8 per cent of GDP in 2018, up from 38.29 per cent in 2017.

Yameen pledged to build the bridge during his 2013 election campaign and made infrastructure development a key plank in his reelection bid.

He said at the inauguration that the new bridge marked "the dawn of a new era" for the Sunni Muslim nation of 340,000 people.

"We see our future unfolding into an age of progress and tranquility."