India and Maldives reach agreement for military withdrawal by May 10

India has come to an agreement with the Maldives government to withdraw their military personnel from the Maldives by May 10 this year.

The information was revealed by the Maldives government following a meeting of the High-Level Core Group formed between the two countries on the withdrawal of Indian troops from the Maldives, held in New Delhi, India on Friday.

A statement released by the Maldives Foreign Ministry said during the meeting held at the Ministry of External Affairs both sides reviewed the existing bilateral cooperation for improving and enhancing the partnership in the fields of defense and security cooperation, economic, and development partnership. Both sides agreed that the Government of India will replace the military personnel in one of the three aviation platform in Maldives by 10 March 2024, and will complete replacing military personnel in the other two platforms by 10 May 2024.

According to the Foreign Ministry, it was agreed that the third meeting of the High-Level core Group will be held in Male’ on a mutually agreeable date during the last week of February.

The statement released by India's External Affairs Ministry following the core-group meeting said both sides continued their discussions on wide-ranging issues related to bilateral cooperation towards identifying steps to enhance the partnership, including expediting the implementation of ongoing development cooperation projects. The statement further said both sides also agreed on a set of mutually workable solutions to enable the continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medvac services to the people of Maldives.

The first meeting of the High-Level Core Group between the two leaders of both countries on the withdrawal of Indian troops from the MAldives was held in Maldives. The second meeting was held in India on Friday while the third meeting is scheduled to be held in Maldives later this month.