'No one has a license to bully us': Maldivian Prez's indirect attack on India after China visit

Beijing/Male: Returning home after a five-day highprofile state visit to China, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu on Saturday struck a defiant note saying that his country may be small but “doesn't give them the license to bully us”.

His comments came amid a diplomatic row with India over derogatory social media posts by three of his ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"We may be small but this doesn't give them the license to bully us," Muizzu, who is regarded as a pro-China leader, said without naming any country.

"Though we have small islands in this ocean, we have a vast exclusive economic zone of 900,000 square km. Maldives is one of the countries with the biggest share of this ocean,” he told the media on his arrival from China after concluding the state visit, the first after assuming office in November last year.

“This ocean does not belong to a specific country. This (Indian) Ocean also belongs to all countries situated in it,” he said, in an apparent jibe at India.

"We aren't in anyone's backyard. We are an independent and sovereign state,” he was quoted as saying by the Maldives Sun Online portal. (PTI)