Maldives President asks India to pull out military

Mohamed Muizzu on Saturday formally requested India to withdraw its military personnel from his country, saying the Maldivian people have given him a "strong mandate" to make this request to New Delhi

Male: Less than 24 hours after taking oath as the President of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu on Saturday formally requested India to withdraw its military personnel from his country, saying the Maldivian people have given him a “strong mandate” to make this request to New Delhi.

Muizzu’s request came when India’s union Minister Kiren Rejiju paid a courtesy call on the new president at the latter’s office, the Maldivian President’s Office said in a press release. The exact number of Indian military personnel in the Maldives is not known. Muizzu, an engineer-turned-politician, took oath on Friday as the eighth President of the strategically-located archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean.

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Underscoring India’s ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’, Rijiju represented the country at Muizzu’s inauguration ceremony.