New Delhi:

The first batch of Indian personnel in the Maldives has been replaced by technical personnel, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.

“The turnaround of the first team of personnel who were operating the ALH helicopter has been completed. So, the first batch that had to be replaced has been completed. The turnaround has happened,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a weekly briefing.

Notably, the Mohamed Muizzu-led Maldives government has formally requested that India withdraw its troops from Male.

The External Affairs Ministry earlier informed that both India and the Maldives have agreed on a set of mutually workable solutions to enable the continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of the Maldives.

Last month, the MEA said that the first batch of Indian technical personnel reached Maldives to replace the defence personnel.

India and the Maldives have held two high-level core group meetings and the third one is expected to take place soon.

The removal of Indian troops from the country was the main election campaign of Muizzu’s party. Currently, there are around 70 Indian troops, along with Dornier 228 maritime patrol aircraft and two HAL Dhruv helicopters, stationed in the Maldives.

Recently, Muizzu again said that “no Indian military personnel” will remain in the country after May 10, “be it in uniform or civilian clothing,” Maldives-based The Edition reported.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar affirmed his belief that the row with the Maldives will be resolved through diplomacy.

He highlighted that Indian military personnel and aviation platforms in the Maldives have been solely working for the benefit of local people and said that sometimes misunderstandings take place between two nations.

“Humanity is humanity. Diplomacy is diplomacy, and politics is politics. The whole world doesn’t always run with obligation…so if we have encountered such a situation, the solution will come through diplomacy only,” Jaishankar said at an event.

“We have to make people understand, sometimes people don’t even have complete knowledge of things, sometimes people get misguided on what others say,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Google Maps image locates Gan island in Maldives.

The government confirmed on Thursday that a team of Indian technical personnel have landed in Maldives to replace military troops that have been operating aircraft there. The development indicates a compromise between the Modi government and the recently elected Muizzu government on the contentious issue of Indian troops stationed in the Maldives that had become the target of the “India Out” campaign run by the ruling party. 

“The first team of technical personnel to operate the advanced light helicopter at Gan has reached Maldives. It will replace the existing personnel that were until now operating this platform. So that is where we are,” said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in response to questions about the move, that was first announced by the Maldives government on Wednesday. Mr. Jaiswal did not indicate the number of troops being replaced in the first batch, of a total 88 Indian military personnel understood to be stationed in the Maldives.

Explained |Unravelling the shift in India-Maldives relations

The confirmation also marks a major climbdown by New Delhi, that had earlier refused to withdraw the troops, including in 2018 when former President Abdulla Yameen had demanded the removal of Indian military personnel on several occasions, even refusing to extend their visas. After Mr. Yameen was defeated in elections by President Ibu Solih, the issue had subsided, but was revived as a campaign plank by President Mohammad Muizzu, who won elections in November 2023 and made the return of Indian military personnel a “priority”.

The announcement on the first batch of replacements comes ahead of the March 10 “deadline” that the Maldives government had reportedly given India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with President Muizzu in early December, and the leaders set up a high-level “core group” to discuss the issue. While the Maldivian government repeatedly said that the decision to replace troops with civilian technical personnel had been taken, New Delhi had been tight-lipped on the matter, saying only that the two sides were seeking “workable” and “mutually acceptable” solutions. 

Editorial | Choppy waters: On India-Maldives ties 

On February 4, however, Mr. Muizzu surprised many by announcing to the Maldivian Majlis or parliament that a deal had indeed been struck.

“As per the most recent discussions, military personnel on one of the three aviation platforms will be recalled before March 10, 2024. The military personnel on the remaining two platforms will also be recalled by May 10, 2024,” Mr. Muizzu had said. Subsequently the MEA had said that the troops would be replaced by “competent technical personnel”, but refused to comment on whether they would be civilian or military. 

The differences over the troops issue had led to other acrimonious exchanges between the two countries in January, and Maldives had skipped a key security conference in Mauritius, for the Colombo Security Dialogue, and downgraded its presence at the Indian Ocean Conference in Perth.  With the first step towards resolving the contentious issue seemingly taken,  India and Maldives indicated that they were restoring progress in some of their other areas of strategic cooperation. On Sunday, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives completed the latest round of biennial trilateral maritime exercises called “Dosti-16” held between their coast guard services. Speaking at the inauguration of the exercises, where Bangladesh participated as an observer, Maldivian Defence Minister Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon said that the Muizzu government “places the highest priority on ensuring that close relations, peace and stability is maintained between Maldives and neighbouring nations”.

Male:

Former Maldivian foreign minister Abdulla Shahid said on Saturday that the claims made by President Mohamed Muizzu about “thousands of Indian military personnel” were just another in a string of lies, adding that there are no armed foreign soldiers stationed in the country.

Posting on his social media account X, the newly elected president of the Maldivian Democratic Party said, “100 days in, it’s clear: President Muizzu’s claims of ‘thousands of Indian military personnel’ were just another in a string of lies. The current administration’s inability to provide specific numbers speaks volumes. There are no armed foreign soldiers stationed in the country.”

He stressed that “transparency matters and that the truth must prevail.”

Muizzu’s party had focussed its election campaign on the removal of Indian troops from Maldives. Currently, there are around 70 Indian troops, along with Dornier 228 maritime patrol aircraft and two HAL Dhruv helicopters, stationed in the Maldives.

On the second day of assuming office, Muizzu officially requested the Indian government to withdraw its military personnel from the Maldives.

Last December, Muizzu had claimed that following talks with the Indian government, an agreement was reached to withdraw Indian military personnel.

Read | Maldives Asks India To Withdraw Military Personnel By March 15: Report

The president also stated that diplomatic negotiations were underway for the withdrawal of Indian troops. He detailed that, as agreed in the last negotiations, the military personnel on one of the three aviation platforms would be withdrawn before March 10, 2024, and the military personnel on the remaining two platforms would be withdrawn before May 10, 2024.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India will replace military personnel at aviation platforms in the Maldives with competent Indian technical personnel.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)