Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India looks forward "to closer cooperation for further strengthening" bilateral ties with the Maldives.
He made the statement in response to a congratulatory message from President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu on winning the general elections.
"Thank you President Muizzu. Maldives is our valued partner and neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region. I too look forward to closer cooperation for further strengthening our bilateral ties," Modi wrote in a post on X.
Modi secured a record-tying third term in India’s elections but lost more than 60 seats, a far weaker result than he had hoped for, or predicted.
With results tabulated nearly all 543 seats in parliament, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains the single largest party, having won 240 seats.
But that is down from 303 in the last election in 2019, at a stroke losing its outright majority.
This means that Modi will depend more heavily on his coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to form a government. NDA, an alliance of conservative Hindu nationalist parties led by BJP, looks set to control 290 seats.
