Will continue with capacity building, says MEA on Maldives’ regime change

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, October 5

A day after the leader of the ‘India Out’ campaign and Maldives President-elect Mohamed Muizzu said he would ask foreign troops to leave the country, New Delhi pointed out that PM Narendra Modi was the first to congratulate him on his victory. The MEA also said India’s focus was building up the capacity of Maldives in several areas including security, thus indicating that it was shelving for the time being plans to enlist Male in the Indo-Pacific strategy.

“The focus of our partnership with Maldives has always been on capacity building and working together to address our shared challenges and priorities, including security,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

“As neighbours, we need to collaborate closely to address these challenges confronting our region, such as trans-national crimes as well as humanitarian assistance disaster relief situations. We look forward to engaging with the new administration in Maldives on all these issues,” he added when asked about Muizzu stating that, “the people have decided and don’t want foreign troops to stay in the Maldives. Therefore, foreign soldiers cannot be here against our sentiments, against our will.”

Bagchi also pointed out that the PM was the first leader to convey greetings and felicitations to the Maldives President-elect. However, in a signal about Male’s priorities after the defeat of Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the pro-India President for the past five years, the President-elect first met envoys of China and the United Kingdom. The Indian High Commissioner was later called to meet Muizzu who “had a good discussion on various aspects of our bilateral relationship including development cooperation,” said Bagchi.

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