{"id":55586,"date":"2024-02-02T22:27:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T22:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/maldives-says-india-to-withdraw-troops-from-march-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-02-02T22:27:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T22:27:07","slug":"maldives-says-india-to-withdraw-troops-from-march-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/maldives-says-india-to-withdraw-troops-from-march-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Maldives says India to withdraw troops from March | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
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India will start withdrawing its troops deployed in the Maldives from next month, Male’s foreign ministry said after talks on Friday.<\/p>\n

New Delhi considers the strategically located Indian Ocean archipelago — which straddles key global shipping lanes — to be within its sphere of influence.<\/p>\n

But the Maldives has shifted into the orbit of China — its largest external creditor — with September’s election of new President Mohamed Muizzu, who demanded the Indian troops leave.<\/p>\n

Male’s foreign ministry said New Delhi had agreed at talks in the Indian capital to start pulling out its 89 personnel by March 10, and complete the process within two months.<\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0Maldives tells India to withdraw troops by March as row deepens<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The troops are deployed to operate three Indian-donated maritime reconnaissance aircraft, two helicopters and a fixed-wing plane which have also been used for medical evacuations from remote islets scattered for some 800 kilometres (500 miles) across the equator.<\/p>\n

The two sides had “reviewed” their co-operation with a view to “enhancing” their partnership in defence, security and other fields, the Maldivian foreign ministry statement said.<\/p>\n

But the Indian government’s statement on the meeting made no explicit reference to any withdrawal.<\/p>\n

Read also:\u00a0Maldives upgrades ties with China amid pivot from India<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The two had “agreed on a set of mutually workable solutions to enable continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medevac services to the people of Maldives”, New Delhi’s foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n

Official sources in the Maldives said it was likely that the aircraft will remain in the nation of 1,192 coral islands, but could be operated by civilian Indian staff.<\/p>\n

Tensions between the neighbours flared last month after three of Muizzu’s junior ministers reportedly called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “clown” and a “terrorist” in since-deleted social media posts.<\/p>\n

In another development, the Maldives defence ministry accused India’s coastguard of entering its exclusive economic zone and harassing fishermen in three Maldivian trawlers.<\/p>\n

The defence ministry said it called for an “explanation” from New Delhi after coastguard personnel boarded the three boats on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The incident came as Indian celebrities urged compatriots to boycott the island nation and instead book their next holidays closer to home.<\/p>\n

Tourism accounts for nearly a third of the Maldives’s economy, with Indians making up the largest share of foreign arrivals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India will start withdrawing its troops deployed in the Maldives from next month, Male’s foreign ministry said after talks on Friday. New Delhi considers the strategically located Indian Ocean archipelago — which straddles key global shipping lanes — to be within its sphere of influence. But the Maldives has shifted into the orbit of China […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/President-Xi-President-Muizzu1704909341-0\/President-Xi-President-Muizzu1704909341-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t