Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has asked India to take back its military personnel from his country by March 15, a senior official here said on Sunday, almost two months after Male sought their removal.
According to the uptodated government figures, there are 88 Indian military personnel in the Maldives. In a media briefing, Abdulla Nazim Ibrahim, the public policy secretary at the President’s Office, said that President Muizzu has officially asked India to remove its military personnel by March 15, the Sun Online newspaper reported. “Indian military personnel cannot stay in the Maldives. This is the policy of President Dr Mohamed Muizzu and his administration,” he said.
Maldives and India have forged a high-level core group to discuss the withdrawal of troops. The group held its first meeting at the Foreign Ministry Headquarters in Male on Sunday morning. The meeting was also attended by Indian High Commissioner Munu Mahawar, the report said. Nazim confirmed the meeting and said the agenda for the meeting was the request to withdraw troops by March 15.
The Indian government has not immediately confirm the media report or comment on it. Just after being sworn as the President of Maldives on November 17 previous year, Muizzu, who is known as a pro-China leader, formally urged India to withdraw its military personnel from his country, saying the Maldivian people have given him a “strong mandate” to make this request to New Delhi. The request for the withdrawal of Indian military personnel arise amid a diplomatic shift between the two neighbours in the backdrop of objectionable comments posted by three deputy ministers of the Muizzu government against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Muizzu suspended the three ministers after their social media posts, which stirred huge controversy in India and led to calls for a boycott by Indian .
Indian tourists who made highest in numbers followed by Russia. Chinese tourists figured third. During his just-concluded state visit to China, Muizzu sought to align Maldives closer to Beijing. Speaking to the press on Saturday after returning from China, President Muizzu indirectly crticised India.Without naming any specific country, he said, “We may be small, but that doesn’t give you the license to bully us.”
He also announced measures to reduce the country”s dependency on India, including securing imports of essential food commodities and medicine and consumables from other countries.”We aren’t in anyone’s backyard. We are an independent and sovereign state,” he said, addressing the reporters gathered at the Velana International Airport. He said that no country has the right to exert influence over the domestic affairs of a country, regardless of its size. He vowed that he would not allow any external influence on the domestic affairs of the Maldives. Male is also reviewing more than 100 bilateral agreements with New Delhi signed by the previous government here.
