Indian Troops in Maldives

• Context (IE): Maldives has asked India to withdraw all its military personnel from the island nation.
• Maldives and India have set up a high-level core group to negotiate the withdrawal of troops.
• Around 77 Indian military personnel are in the Maldives, as per official data.

Why Indian troops in Maldives

• The Indian military saved the Maldivian President during Operation Cactus, thwarting a military coup.
• Indian military personnel train Maldivian troops in combat, surveillance, and rescue-aid operations.
• Helicopter operations, Dornier aircraft operations & associated maintenance and engineering works.

Apprehension and mistrust

• India-gifted Dhruv ALHs are seen as an attempt to increase India’s military presence.
• Previous Solih government’s perceived lack of transparency while dealing with India raised mistrust.
• The Maldivian police academy campus is seen as an attempt to settle more Indians in Maldives.
• Maldivian media also portrayed the UTF Harbour Project agreement at Uthuru Thilafalhu, a strategically located atoll near the capital Malé, as India’s military base project.

• Domestic politics & the pro-China government are the real reasons behind the withdrawal demand.

Historical Rollercoaster of Maldives’ foreign policy

• Maldivian culture, rooted in Buddhism, became a constitutionally Muslim nation after conversions.
• Maldives managed to maintain relative independence from European colonisation.
• It signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the British in 1887.
• With internal political sovereignty, foreign affairs were surrendered to Britain.
• During the Second World War, the Maldives was a British naval base and continued as a British protectorate until its independence in 1965.
• Independent Maldives became a UN member in 1965.
• India was the first nation to launch a resident mission in Male in 1976.
• In 1978, the Indian International Airport Authority was awarded a tender to expand the Hulhule airport runway.
• Indo-Maldivian bilateral relationship was formalised by signing the Treaty of Friendship in 1981.
• Maldivian foreign policy under President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom took a lukewarm turn towards India despite India’s aid in preserving his regime during a coup attempt.
• Recognising China’s emergence as a global power with significant strategic interests in the Indian Ocean, President Gayoom visited China in 1984 and then again in 2006.
• Again, Indo-Maldivian ties improved with President Mohamed Nasheed coming to power in 2008 with campaign critical Sinocentric policies.

For details on India-Maldives relations, visit >India-Maldives Relations.