India-Maldives row: High-level talk begins amid Muizzu asking India to withdraw troops by March 15
SunOnline newspaper. Ibrahim Khaleel, the Minister at the President's Office for Strategic Communications, told SunOnline newspaper that both the countries had agreed to set up a high-level core group during the meeting between President Muizzu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the COP28 in Dubai in December. Khaleel said besides the withdrawal of Indian military personnel, the group also discussed expediting India-backed development projects in the island nation.
Earlier, the new Maldivian administration had established that there are 77 Indian military personnel in the Maldives. Male is also reviewing more than 100 bilateral agreements with New Delhi. There were 24 Indian military personnel to manage the first helicopter, 25 Indians to manage the Dornier aircraft, 26 personnel to manage the second helicopter, and two more for maintenance and engineering.
The withdrawal of Indian troops had been a major poll plank for the 'pro-China' leader. Soon after taking oath as the President of Maldives on November 17 last year, President Muizzu formally requested New Delhi to withdraw its military personnel stationed in the Indian Ocean archipelagic nation, saying that the Maldivian people have given him a "strong mandate" to make this request to India. The discussions on the withdrawal of Indian military personnel come amid a row between the two nations in the backdrop of derogatory comments posted by three deputy ministers of the Muizzu government against Prime Minister Modi.
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