Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu said on Sunday that the Indian government has agreed to withdraw its soldiers from the island nation. Hours later, sources in New Delhi said the issue was briefly discussed in Dubai where he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussions on how to keep the Indian helicopters and operational aircraft were “ongoing” and “the core group that both sides have agreed to set up will look at details of how to take this forward”. “In the discussions we had, the Indian government has agreed to remove Indian soldiers,” Muizzu told reporters in Male. “We also agreed to set up a high level committee to solve issues related to development projects.” Muizzu made the remarks following engagements on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit. The island nation has two helicopters and an aircraft provided by India to the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) for emergency medical evacuations and disaster relief operations. There are 77 Indian military personnel in Maldives to operate these platforms. Muizzu won the presidential election in September, having campaigned to change the Maldives's "India first" policy and promised to remove a small presence of these 77 personnel. While there was no official response from the Ministry of External Affairs in India, a source said, “We have seen reports about the status of Indian platforms in Maldives engaged in HADR (humanitarian and disaster relief) activities. The continued usefulness of the Indian platforms, as it was recognised in discussions, needs to be looked at from a proper perspective.” “The Maldivian side has acknowledged the utility of these platforms. The fact that it is an important segment of our bilateral development partnership is recognised by both sides,” the source said. “Discussions on how to keep them operational are ongoing. The core group that both sides have agreed to set up will look at details of how to take this forward,” the source said. The two sides decided to form a core group after the Modi-Muizzu meeting in Dubai. A day after he was sworn in as President of Maldives last month, Mohamed Muizzu had “formally requested” the Indian government to “withdraw its military personnel” from the island nation. (with Reuters inputs)
