Military troops in Maldives to be replaced with 'Indian technical personnel': MEA

Indian military personnel in Maldives will be replaced with "competent Indian technical personnel,"MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Thursday (Feb 9). This comes days after India and Maldives held their second high-level meeting in New Delhi.

The Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, has historically had close ties with India due to their geographical proximity and cultural connections. However, tensions have been brewing after the formation of pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu's government. This led to strains in the India-Maldives relationship as Muizzu earlier urged India to take its around 80 military personnel out of the island nation.

Speaking about the outcome of the meeting held between both sides in New Delhi, Maldives, in a statement claimed that the two sides agreed to replace Indian military personnel in one of the three aviation platforms by March 10 and the others by May 10, media reports said.

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Moreover, responding to reports on India's budget estimates for the Maldives, MEA spokesperson Jaiswal said that the numbers may be revised. He affirmed that India continues to remain Maldives' "important" and "committed development partner."

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"What happens is that a certain amount of money is allocated and, thereafter, there is a phase for revision... So you would see that the budget for the Maldives, this time, what has been given is ₹ 779 crore ($77.9 million) as against ₹ 600 crore ($60 million) which was projected earlier, so it has actually gone up. The new figures will also be revised once we have more details, more clarity on what sort of forward movement is happening," he said.

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India, post the high-level meeting said, "During the meeting, both sides continued their discussions on wide-ranging issues related to bilateral cooperation towards identifying steps to enhance the partnership, including expediting the implementation of ongoing development cooperation projects."

"Both sides also agreed on a set of mutually workable solutions to enable continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medvac services (medical evacuation) to the people of Maldives," the MEA added.

(With inputs from agencies)