India's Ministry of External Affairs says India will replace Indian troops stationed in the aviation centers in the Maldives with skilled aviation personnel.
The Ministry's Spokesperson Randir Jaiswal said at a weekly briefing today that the present personnel would be replaced by competent Indian technical personnel.
Earlier this month, the Maldivian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that both sides agreed that the Government of India will replace the military personnel in one of the three aviation platforms by 10 March 2024, and will complete replacing military personnel in the other two platforms by 10 May 2024.
The statement also said that it was agreed that the third meeting of the High-Level core Group will be held in Male’ on a mutually agreeable date during the last week of February.
Meanwhile, the Indian External Affairs Spokesperson touched on the reports of an increase in budget allocation to the Maldives by India.
Jaiswal confirmed that a higher allocation has been set for the Maldives as projected earlier and that India continues to be a committed development partner for the Maldives.
He said that the new figures will be revised when India has more clarity on what sort of forward movement is happening but assured that India is committed development partner for the Maldives.
