SHANGHAI/NEW DELHI — The Maldives’ new president, Mohamed Muizzu, met Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday, seeking more investment and tourists amid a souring of ties with India.

Xi hailed the two countries’ cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative since he visited Male, the Maldivian capital, in 2014. “Under the new circumstances, China-Maldives relations are confronted with a historic opportunity to build on past achievements and forge ahead,” Xi added during their summit, aired by state broadcaster CCTV.

Muizzu’s trip to China ahead of the traditional first stop in India was already seen as a clear sign of the Maldives’ tilt toward Beijing and away from New Delhi, both of which seek influence in the strategically situated Indian Ocean archipelago. But the tour came just as a major diplomatic row with India erupted over Maldivian ministers’ disparaging remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising the stakes.

Angry Indians have been pushing for a boycott of the islands, known for their idyllic resorts. At a business forum in Fuzhou on Tuesday, Muizzu vowed to diversify tourism products and offer new experiences, asking China to send more travelers.

“China was our No. 1 market pre-COVID, and it is my request that we intensify efforts for China to regain this position,” he said.

Last year, India was the top sender of tourists, according to Maldivian statistics. But while Muizzu was kicking off his China tour, scheduled from Monday to Friday, the tiny island nation’s ties with its much bigger South Asian neighbor appeared to be rapidly fraying.

Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu speaks to an investment forum in China on Jan. 9.

The row erupted after Modi made a series of posts on X promoting tourism in India’s Lakshadweep islands off the coast of its southern state of Kerala. Modi did not refer to the Maldives in any of these posts, which were illustrated with pictures of Lakshadweep’s serene beaches and the prime minister walking, relaxing in an armchair and snorkeling.

“For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list,” Modi wrote on Jan. 4.

Some Maldivian ministers appeared to take Modi’s posts as an attempt to lure away tourists from their country. Among them was Mariyam Shiuna, deputy minister of youth empowerment, who called Modi a “clown” and “the puppet of Israel” in a now-deleted X post widely shared via screenshots. Modi had been quick to express support for Israel after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, which sparked a war in Gaza.

As legions of Indians defended their leader on social media, the Maldivian government reportedly suspended Shiuna and two other deputy ministers, identified as Malsha Shareef and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid. “These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

That did not appear to assuage the anger, however.

The hashtag “BoycottMaldives” has been trending on social media since the weekend, with even Bollywood movie stars and cricketers joining in and urging people to explore India’s islands and beaches instead. Some users posted screenshots of Maldives resort booking cancellations.

Popular actor Akshay Kumar slammed the Maldivian ministers’ “hateful and racist comments” on X on Sunday. “Surprised that they are doing this to a country that sends them the maximum number of tourists. We are good to our neighbors but why should we tolerate such unprovoked hate?” he wrote, saying he had visited the Maldives many times, but that Indians should “support our own tourism.”

According to the Maldives’ Tourism Ministry website, India was the top market in terms of arrivals in 2023, with 209,198. That was just ahead of second place Russia and accounted for 11.1%, followed by China at 10%.

Ease My Trip, one of India’s biggest travel platforms, announced it was suspending all flight bookings to the Maldives “in solidarity with our nation.” Separately, in a statement, the Confederation of All India Traders urged exporters and traders nationwide “to refrain from conducting business dealings” with the island state. The body represents about 80 million traders across India.

Rajat Malhotra, who runs his own travel agency in New Delhi, said on Tuesday that interest in the Maldives had evaporated. He said that normally, around this time, his company would be fielding calls about Maldives packages, but added, “We have not received any inquiry since the row began.”

Doing damage control, the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry strongly condemned the “derogatory comments” directed toward Modi and people of India.

Former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who maintained an “India first” foreign policy but lost last year’s election to Muizzu, criticized the ministers’ “hateful language” and said that India has always been a “good friend.”

To a question on Muizzu choosing China, not India, as his second overseas destination as president after Turkey, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters last week that it was up to the Maldivian government “to decide where they go and how they go about their international relations.”

Leaving little question about his preference, Muizzu told the business forum that China is the Maldives’ “closest partner in development.”

China and the Maldives signed a free trade agreement in 2017, but amid Male’s fluctuating geopolitical position, it has yet to ratify it. Muizzu told the forum that his government was committed to quickly implementing the deal.

He also pitched new projects, such as the reclamation of 10 million square meters of land from the sea for urban development.

But as Muizzu made his appeals for investment, analysts warned about the Maldives piling up more debt despite fading growth.

The China Development Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of China collectively hold over 60% of Maldives’ sovereign debt, according to a report released last month by the Observer Research Foundation. And according to the Asian Development Bank, the Maldives’ economic growth is estimated at 7.1% for 2023, down from 13.9% in 2022.

“Given the economic situation, Muizzu’s administration would be wise to avoid taking on additional loans,” Nilanthi Samaranayake, a visiting expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace told Nikkei Asia. “Sri Lanka’s experience in the past two years is a cautionary tale for Maldives,” she added, referring to that island nation’s debt default and struggle to work out restructuring.

Some experts say that even if Muizzu prefers China, the India dispute has given his fledgling government a reality check.

The “huge backlash” in the Maldives against the ministers’ comments “shows that these ministers had violated diplomatic courtesy,” said Raj Kumar Sharma, a senior research fellow at NatStrat, an independent think tank working on India’s national security and foreign policy.

He suggested that the action taken against the ministers was revealing. The Maldivian government “may be trying to reinvent the wheel of their diplomacy by prioritizing China,” he said, “but they cannot overcome their geography.”