Maldives_President_Muizzu
The second group of Indian soldiers flying a helicopter left the Maldives on April 9 under a bilateral agreement with India, President Mohamed Muizzu announced.
Muizzu made the announcement on Friday during a campaign event for ruling party candidates ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for later this month.
“The first team has already left. Now, on April 9, the soldiers on the second platform have also withdrawn,” Muizzu said in local media.
The Maldives-India agreement aims to replace the Indian military personnel stationed in the Maldives to oversee the operations of the military aircraft that the country has endowed with trained citizens, including from India.
Muizzu, a pro-China leader, added that the Indian soldiers on the last platform would also leave the Maldives before May 10 and this would mark the fulfillment of his promise to remove Indian soldiers from the island.
“There is only one platform left. Since the two countries have already signed, they (the remaining Indian soldiers) will also be recalled before May 10. They will leave,” Muizzu said on the news portal Edition.mv.
“So that promise has been fulfilled, right? All foreign soldiers here will leave before May 10. So every promise I make, I will keep to the best of my ability.” He gave no details and did not clarify whether the soldiers had been replaced by Indian civilians.
Neither the Maldives Defense Ministry nor India have commented on the latest withdrawal of Indian soldiers from the country.
According to the Maldives government, 88 Indian soldiers were stationed in the Maldives to operate helicopters in Addu and Laamu Kadhdhoo and a Dornier aircraft in Hanimaadhoo. The figure also includes doctors from the Senahiya military hospital.
The first group of Indian soldiers left the Maldives on March 11. The Defense Ministry said 26 soldiers in Addu had been replaced by 26 Indian civilians. India also replaced the old helicopter in Addu with a new one.
Relations between the Maldives and India have deteriorated since Muizzu came to power in November last year, while ties with China are closer. He also traveled to China in January and met with top Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping.
China and the Maldives recently signed a defense cooperation agreement and several other infrastructure development projects.
The Maldives is India’s most important maritime neighbor in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and holds a special place in its initiatives such as SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and the Narendra Government’s Neighborhood First Policy Modes.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: April 13, 2024 | 11:03 PM IST