Maldives on Friday claimed that India has agreed to a phased replacement of the Indian military personnel stationed in the archipelago from March 10 and complete the exercise by May 10. Male made this announcement after the second meeting of the India-Maldives High-Level Core Group in Delhi earlier in the day.

According to a statement issued by the Maldivian foreign ministry on the meeting, “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 Indian readout on the meeting made no mention of these dates. “Both sides also agreed on a set of mutually workable solutions to enable continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medvac services to the people of Maldives,” the external affairs ministry said.

The use of the word “replace” in the Maldivian statement is a shift from their demand for the withdrawal of military personnel. In the first meeting of the core group last month, Maldives had claimed that “both sides expressed willingness to intensify cooperation and agreed to fast-track the withdrawal of Indian military personnel” while India maintained that they had discussions “on finding a mutually workable solution to enable continued operation of Indian aviation platforms that provide humanitarian and medvac services to the people of Maldives”.

This was the second meeting of the core group in less than a month, the first was held in Male on January 14 soon after bilateral relations worsened over offensive remarks by three Maldivian ministers against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his Lakshadweep visit was projected by members of the ruling ecosystem as a challenge to the island tourism offered by the atoll nation.

Ever since President Mohamed Muizzu assumed office in the Maldives in November, Male has been publicly pushing for the early withdrawal of Indian military personnel from the archipelago in keeping with his election campaign slogan of “India Out”. The military personnel are on the ground in the Maldives to operate the two helicopters and Dornier aircraft that India has gifted to Male in 2013 and 2020 respectively.