DR MOHAMED Muizzu, who won the Maldives presidential election last month, has wasted no time in asking India to get its troops out of the country.

“We don’t want any foreign military boots on Maldivian soil… I promised this to the people of the Maldives and I will live up to my promise from day one,” the president-elect, who is due to be sworn in later in November, told the BBC in an exclusive interview.

He said he had met the Indian ambassador a few days after his victory and “told him very clearly that every single Indian military personnel here should be removed”.

The Maldives has long been under India’s sphere of influence and Mr Muizzu’s demand is likely to trigger diplomatic tensions between Malé and Delhi.

In fact, when Mr Muizzu won the Maldives presidential poll, that was seen as a setback for India especially as his opponent, the incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had drawn his country closer to Delhi since taking over in 2018.

India, which wants a foothold in the strategically located islands to monitor a key part of the Indian Ocean, has also provided about $2bn in development assistance to the country.

Mr Muizzu also says that the presence of these troops could put the Maldives at risk, especially as tensions between India and China escalate along their Himalayan border.

“Maldives is too small to get entangled with this global power struggle. We will not get entangled into this,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2023