Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has affirmed that no Indian military personnel, not even those in civilian clothing, would be present inside his country after May 10, a news portal Edition.mv reported.
“There will be no Indian troops in the country come May 10. Not in uniform and not in civilian clothing. Indian military will not be residing in this country in any form of clothing. I state this with confidence,” Muizzu reportedly said.
He was responding to the Opposition’s criticism that the Indian technical personnel who are replacing the military personnel are actually military personnel without their uniform.
Muizzu’s statement comes less than a week after an Indian civilian team reached the Maldives to take charge of one of the three aviation platforms in the country, well ahead of the March 10 deadline agreed by the two nations for the withdrawal of Indian military personnel.
On February 2, the two countries had agreed that India would pull out all its 80-odd military personnel stationed in the Maldives by May 10.
Earlier, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said the two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft in the Maldives would be operated by “competent Indian technical personnel” who would replace the “present personnel”.
