India will begin withdrawing its soldiers stationed in the Maldives - a contingent of 89 people - on March 10, the Maldives Foreign Ministry announced on Friday following talks in New Delhi.
India agreed to begin this withdrawal on March 10 and complete it in two months, the ministry said.
The Indian contingent, which includes medical personnel, operates three maritime reconnaissance aircraft, two helicopters and a plane used to carry out medical evacuations from remote islands scattered over a distance of 800 km along the equator.
The two parties discussed their cooperation with the objective of strengthening their partnership in the areas of defense and security in particular, the ministry explained.
However, the Indian Foreign Ministry statement made no explicit mention of the withdrawal.
India and the Maldives have agreed on
"a series of mutually feasible solutions to enable the continued operations of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the population of the Maldives"
, a indicated the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A boycott of the Maldives
Official sources in the Maldives said the planes were likely to remain in the Maldives, a vast archipelago of 1,192 islands, but could be flown by Indian civilian crews.
New Delhi has long considered the Indian Ocean archipelago as part of its sphere of influence, but since the last presidential election, which brought President Mohamed Muizzu to power in September, the Maldives is now leaning towards China , their first creditor.
Alongside the rapprochement with Beijing, tensions with New Delhi erupted, after three ministers in the Muizzu government described Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a
“clown”
and a
“terrorist”
in since-deleted social media posts.
This scandal has prompted Bollywood actors and Indian cricket stars to call on their compatriots to boycott the Maldives and choose a destination closer to India for their next vacation.
Tourism represents almost a third of the Maldives' economic revenues, with Indians making up the largest number of foreign visitors.