US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his counterpart from the Maldives on Tuesday and said Washington sought a deeper partnership with the Indian Ocean island state and stood with it in ensuring a free-and-open Indo-Pacific region and in dealing with climate change.

Maldives Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer's Washington visit comes two months after the party of President Mohamed Muizzu won a landslide in elections. Muizzu has pivoted ties towards China and away from India, a key US regional partner in standing up to China in the Indo-Pacific.

The US opened an embassy in Male in 2023 to boost engagement with the low-lying archipelago of about half a million people in the face of China's efforts to spread its regional influence.

After the April election, Washington said ties were being strengthened in areas including economic development, education, security cooperation, and climate-crisis response.

"For us, the Maldives is an important partner, and we want to make sure that we're a good partner to the Maldives," Blinken told Zameer. "We stand together in working to make sure that we have a free and open Indo-Pacific region," he said.