President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu says the Maldives is too small to get entangled in a power struggle between India and China.
He said this in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC in which he talked about how his government would push to make the Indian troops deployed in the Maldives leave.
Muizzu said to the BBC that he 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".
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.
The President-elect also said in the interview that he wanted to review all the agreements the Maldives have signed with India in recent years.
He further clarified that he does not know what is included in the agreements and further noted that some of the country's MPs also said during Parliamentary debates that they did not know what was included in these binding legal documents.
The BBC appears to have questioned the President-elect about his affiliations with China but Muizzu was quick to deny that he was the 'Pro-China' candidate.
Muizzu said that he was Pro-Maldives and that for him, Maldives came first and the country's independence came first. Muizzu added that he was not pro and against any country.
