Maldive's President Abdulla Yameen

NEW DELHI: While the Maldives lost comprehensively to Indonesia the battle for the UNSC non-permanent Asia-Pacific seat, Male lost no time in claiming after the result that India supported its candidature. This wasn't refuted by India as the ministry of external affairs (MEA) chose to remain silent on the issue.

In a tweet, Maldives ambassador to India Ahmed Mohamed said that his country highly appreciated India's support for Male's candidature.

"We received reassurances in writing on June 7, 2018 as well," Mohamed tweeted.

The Maldives, with only 46 votes, lost out to Indonesia for the Asia Pacific regional group's seat. Indonesia got 144. The voting took place through secret ballot.

India's vote, if claims made by Male are true, is significant as it comes when bilateral ties between the two countries, seem to be in free fall. The government, in fact, was said to be doing a rethink on its earlier commitment to the Maldives that it would support its bid for non-permanent seat.

This was attributed mainly to the growing bitterness in ties, as evident recently from President Abdulla Yameen government's decision to shun defence cooperation with India. Male has now asked India to remove both its naval choppers from the Maldives as it doesn't want Indian Navy personnel to remain stationed on its territory.

The vote also came days after PM Narendra Modi's visit to Indonesia. The Indonesian foreign minister had met Indian authorities around the same time and sought support for Indonesia's candidature.

With the Maldives going to polls later this year, opposition parties have appealed to India to ensure free and fair elections as they believe all state institutions like the judiciary and election commission are under Yameen's control. As strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney had said ahead of the UNSC vote, supporting Yameen will effectively condone his throttling of democracy and jailing of opponents.