India offers Maldives half a billion reasons to distance itself from China

India on Thursday pledged US$500 million to build bridges and causeways in the Maldives, as New Delhi seeks to counter growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.The Maldives borrowed billions of dollars from Beijing and hired Chinese firms for infrastructure projects under previous President Abdulla Yameen.India and the US over China: Maldives picks a side in Indian OceanThis stoked concerns in India and the West that China was saddling countries in Asia and beyond with unsustainable debts…