India to withdraw troops from Maldives

India has agreed to withdraw its military personnel from Maldives by May 10 and replace the aviation management staff with civilians. 

The Maldives government on Friday said the decision was announced after the second meeting of the India-Maldives High-Level Core Group in New Delhi. 

The core group was formed to negotiate Malé’s demand that New Delhi remove its military presence from the island nation.

The Maldives Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release said, “Both sides agreed that the Government of India will replace the military personnel in one of the three aviation platform by 10 March 2024, and will complete replacing military personnel in the other two platforms by 10 May 2024.” 

However, the statement issued by India’s External Affairs Ministry had no mention of this agreement. 

New Delhi stated that both sides “agreed on a set of mutually workable solutions to enable continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medvac [Medical Evacuation] services to the people of Maldives”.