Former Foreign Minister rejects Maldives President Muizzu's claim about "Indian soldiers"

Former Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has said the claims made by Maldivian President Mohammed Muizzu about "thousands of Indian military personnel" are false. He said his string of lies also included the claim about "thousands of Indian military personnel". He said that there are no armed foreign soldiers deployed in his country.

In a post on social media platform "The administration's inability to provide specific numbers speaks volumes. There are no armed foreign troops deployed in the country." “Transparency plays an important role and the truth should come out,” he said.

It is noteworthy that the most special campaign of Muizzu's party was to remove Indian soldiers from Maldives. Currently around 70 Indian soldiers are deployed in Maldives along with Dornier 228 maritime patrol aircraft and two HAL Dhruv helicopters. On the second day of assuming office, Muizzu officially requested the Indian government to withdraw its military personnel from Maldives.

In December last year, Muizzu had claimed that after talks with the Indian government, an agreement had been reached to withdraw the Indian military personnel. The President had also said that diplomatic talks are being held for the withdrawal of Indian troops. He had elaborated that as agreed in the previous talks, the military personnel on one of the three aviation platforms would be withdrawn before March 10, 2024 and the military personnel on the remaining two platforms would be withdrawn before May 10, 2024.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 had said that India would replace military personnel on aviation platforms in the Maldives with capable Indian technical personnel.