It has been revealed that Indian has deployed 75 of its soldiers to the Maldives just to maintain the aircraft it has gifted to the country's defense force, MNDF.
The information was revealed at Parliament's Security Services Committee hearing held yesterday where MP requested information about the hydrography agreement and the Dornier agreement struck with India.
Defense Minister Mariya Ahmed Didi along with Chief of Defense Force Major General Abdullah Shamal and Vice Chief of Defense Force attended the committee hearing.
At the hearing, MNDF had said that 25 Indian soldiers had been deployed to maintain and manage the Dornier aircraft and that this includes 21 technical personal, 3 pilots, and 1 observer.
MNDF had also said while the two helicopters are stationed at two regions in the country, each station is host to 25 Indian servicemen, and that this means a total of 75 Indian soldiers are staying in the Maldives just to maintain and manage the air support from India.
This comes after MNDF had recently presented the aviation squadron badge to 2 MNDF pilots and had confirmed that the pilots had begun flying the Dornier aircraft.
At the hearing, MP for Maduvari Constituency Adam Shareef had asked whether Indian soldiers are still deployed to train MNDF pilots. In answer, Major General Shamaal said that the former administration and India had discussed that pilots from both countries would fly the aircraft and that the agreement has also stipulated as such.
He went on to say that budget constraints would mean that it would be difficult to keep MNDF pilots on the government payroll.
