NEW DELHI, Feb 8: India will replace military personnel at aviation platforms in the Maldives with competent Indian technical personnel, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.
The Mohamed Muizzu-led Maldives government has formally requested that India withdraw its troops from Male.
In this regard, a second high-level group meeting took place in New Delhi on February 2 and a third meeting is scheduled to be held later this month.
Addressing a weekly press briefing in the national capital, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "What we had to say, we made it out in the press release. This was done after the second high-level core group meeting. We also said that the third core group meeting will be subsequently held."
"I would like to say, the present personnel will be replaced by competent Indian technical personnel," Jaiswal said.
After the second meeting, the Maldives Foreign Ministry in a statement said that India will replace its military personnel in one of the three aviation platforms in the Maldives by March 10 and will complete the replacement by May 10.
"Both sides agreed that the Government of India will replace the military personnel in one of the three aviation platform by March 10, 2024, and will complete replacing military personnel in the other two platforms by 10 May 2024," the statement read. —ANI
