Former President Mohamed Nasheed has said that the united opposition will renegotiate the terms of Chinese-funded projects following the example set by Sri Lanka to see if they were fair and in the interest of the country.

In an interview to Indian Express, the former President said they will take notes from the “experience of the Sri Lankan Ports Minister Arjuna Ranatunga in re-negotiating the deal over Chinese built Hambantota port”.

He added that this would be a cumbersome process as 70 to 80 per cent of the Maldives’ external debt is to China.

Nasheed said that China was not transparent in their dealings, and that they prefer to work with authoritarian regimes being itself authoritarian. He also said that he will not say that China has no territorial interests in the Maldives.

Meanwhile, he said he hoped that President Abdulla Yameen would come for talks with him and the opposition.

Asked if he would be the joint opposition candidate in the 2018 parliamentary election, Nasheed said that his expectation is that there may not be any need for it at that time. The political field will have democratized so that every party can hope to win.