Maldives Prez asks India to withdraw its military by March 15

New Delhi/Male: Amid a diplomatic row with India, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has proposed that New Delhi withdraw its military presence from the archipelago nation before March 15.

Muizzu's proposal comes just days after he returned from China.

The Maldivian President, who is pro-China, had fought his elections last year on anti-India plank. Soon after coming to power, he formally asked New Delhi to withdraw its troops from Maldives. At present, around 70 Indian troops, along with Dornier 228 maritime patrol aircraft and two HAL Dhruv helicopters, are stationed in the Maldives.

The removal of Indian troops was the main

campaign weapon of Muizzu's party. Last month, government sources said the troop withdrawal issue was briefly discussed during the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Maldivian President on the sidelines of the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai. However, sharply escalating the rhetoric, Muizzu said the archipelago in the Indian Ocean was “not in backyard of any particular country” and was actively working to reduce dependence on procuring essential commodities from a single nation.

The Maldivian President stated that the Indian Ocean is not the exclusive domain of any specific nation and noted that the Maldives holds a significant stake in the vast expanse of this ocean. “Even though our islands are small, we are a huge country with a very large exclusive economic zone of 9 lakh sq km. Maldives is one country that holds the largest proportion of this ocean. This ocean is not the property of a specific country,” he said.

Muizzu even took a swipe at the earlier President Mohamed Solih for having a close relation with India, but without mentioning New Delhi directly. He said, as per the Maldivian media, that Solih had to take permission from a foreign government “to get up from one chair and sit on another chair”.

Muizzu had won the presidential elections and stopped Solih’s re-election bid by campaigning on a platform with the slogan of ‘India Out’. On the second day of his presidency, Muizzu had called on India to remove Indian security personnel stationed in Maldives.

Meanwhile, in the first major election into Muizzu’s presidency, the ruling coalition lost the capital city Malé’s mayoral elections to the Opposition, Maldivian Democratic Party. This election was necessitated by Muizzu’s resignation as Malé mayor following his victory in last November’s Presidential election.