The governments of India and Maldives had agreed to complete the process of withdrawing military personnel from the other two platforms by 10 May 2024.

This was revealed by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, during his first-ever presidential address delivered to the public at the inaugural sitting of the first session of 2024 on Monday morning. This is the last session of the ongoing 19th parliament term.

Delivering his presidential address, the president noted that the biggest pledge he made was to protect the sovereignty and independence of the Maldivian people.

Highlighting that the reasons the public voted for him and elected him were because he pledged to send away foreign troops in the Maldives, recover the portion lost from the Maldives’ waters, as well as the termination of agreements that could undermine the sovereignty of the country.

The president noted that efforts are being carried out in this regard, since he came into power.

As such, he noted that efforts are underway to evacuate Indian military personnel from the Maldives, and this is being done through dialogue and discussions from both sides, under diplomatic rules.

The latest agreement to withdraw the Indian military personnel in one of the three aviation platform by 10 March 2024 was made during the second meeting of the high-level core group between the Maldives and India on February 2.

Shedding light on this meeting, President Muizzu stated that it was agreed to withdraw the troops from one platform by March 10 and the troops from the remaining two platforms would be withdrawn by May 10.

Stressing on the need to increase resources for the defence and security of the island nation, the president said that there was a need to enhance the archipelago nation’s capabilities to defend itself by land, sea and air routes.