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Maldivian foreign minister Moosa Zameer to visit India on May 9
Moosa Zameer’s trip on May 9 will come a day before India is to complete withdrawing more than 80 military personnel stationed in the Maldives
NEW DELHI: Maldivian foreign minister Moosa Zameer will visit India this week, becoming the first leader from the Indian Ocean archipelago to travel to New Delhi amid a dramatic downturn in relations between the two sides.
Zameer’s trip to India on May 9 will come a day before India is expected to complete the process of withdrawing more than 80 military personnel stationed in the Maldives to operate three aircraft mainly used for humanitarian relief operations and replacing them with civilian experts.
During his official visit to New Delhi, Zameer will meet his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar for discussions on “bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest”, the external affairs ministry said in a brief statement.
“Maldives is India’s key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and Foreign Minister Zameer’s visit is expected to lend further momentum to the bilateral cooperation between the two countries,” the statement said.
Bilateral ties have been hit since Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu took a range of steps since coming to power late last year to move his country closer to China and to reduce dependence on India in areas ranging from healthcare to food security and defence cooperation.
Muizzu, who ran on an “India Out” campaign in the presidential election, scrapped a 2019 agreement with India on conducting hydrographic surveys and inked pacts with Turkiye for acquiring drones for maritime surveillance and food items such as wheat.
He also signed an agreement with China for military equipment and training. He demanded that India withdraw more than 80 military personnel deployed in the Maldives to operate two helicopters and an aircraft. Two batches of military personnel were pulled out in March and April and the final batch is expected to be withdrawn by May 10.
