Maldives asks India to withdraw its troops by March 15

Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has asked India to withdraw its military troops from his country by March 15, a senior government official said on Sunday, PTI reported.

Abdulla Nazim Ibrahim, the principal secretary to the president on public policy, said at a press conference said it is a policy decision taken by Muizzu and his administration.

“Indian military personnel cannot stay in the Maldives.,” Nazim added, PTI reported citing the Maldives-based SunOnline newspaper.

Muizzu, who was sworn into power in November, is widely seen as sympathetic to China’s interests in the country. His predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had sought closer ties with India even as government critics had accused him of “compromising the sovereignty” of the island nation.

In December, Muizzu had claimed that the Indian government has agreed to withdraw its soldiers. But India maintained that discussions on the issue were still ongoing.

There are 88 Indian soldiers in the Maldives, reported PTI. India is the only foreign power with a military presence in the Maldives.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the core group to negotiate the withdrawal of troops held its first meeting on Sunday morning at Foreign Ministry Headquarters in Male, the capital of the Maldives. The meeting was attended by Indian High Commissioner Munu Mahawar.

The agenda of the meeting was a request to India to withdraw its troops, Nazim said.

Last week, a diplomatic row emerged between Malé and New Delhi pertaining to remarks by three deputy ministers of the island nation about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s social media posts.

On November 18, a day after being sworn in as president, Muizzu had asked India to remove its military presence from the Maldives as he met Minister for Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju in Male.

The Maldivian president had told the Indian minister that he hoped New Delhi would “honour the democratic will of the people” of the archipelago.