India is the only significant power that all parties trust, or at least do not distrust, notes former defence secretary Ajay Kumar.
There was no immediate confirmation from India's defence ministry on the withdrawal of the first batch of Indian military personnel from the Maldives as reported by the media in Maldives.
Major General Abdulla Shamaal, chief of the Maldives National Defence Force, called on General Manoj Chandrashekar Pande, chief of the army staff, in New Delhi on Thursday, July 28, 2022.
However, the Maldives government has no intention of removing the doctors from India at Senahiya, a media report said.
China said on Tuesday that it supports the Maldives in safeguarding its sovereignty, as the first batch of Indian military personnel operating a helicopter left the island nation and was replaced by a civilian crew.
The principal director of plans, policy, and resources management for the Maldives National Defence Force, Colonel Ahmed Mujuthaba Mohamed said that discussions are underway for withdrawing Indian troops from the Maldives.
There are 88 military personnel manning the three Indian platforms that have been providing humanitarian and medical evacuation services to the people of the Maldives for the last few years using two helicopters and a Dornier aircraft.
President Mohamed Muizzu, known for his pro-China stance, has thanked India for enabling the resumption of medical evacuation services with civilian aviation personnel from India.
India will replace its military personnel operating three aviation platforms in the Maldives with 'competent' Indian technical personnel even as New Delhi asserted that it remained an important development partner of the island nation.
China on Monday signed a defence cooperation agreement with the Maldives to provide free military assistance to foster "stronger" bilateral ties with Male, weeks after President Mohamed Muizzu set a deadline for the withdrawal of the first group of Indian military personnel from his island nation.
External intervention to help Mohammed Nasheed overcome the mutineers would have been inadvisable, and therefore forced him to step down as president, says strategic expert B Raman.
The Indian government appears to have been caught napping in the Maldives on two counts, says security expert B Raman.
India has expressed concern about the movement of the Xiang Yang Hong 03 vessel in Indian Ocean waters and also prevailed on Sri Lanka to refuse permission for the ship to dock at Colombo port.
The Maldives government has no intention of removing the doctors from India at Senahiya military hospital .
The Indian government sources said Muizzu, in the meeting, brought up the issue of Indian military personnel present in the Maldives for operating aircraft for medical evacuation and to counter drug trafficking.
The Maldives will get free 'non-lethal' military equipment and training from China's military under a newly inked agreement with Beijing, President Mohamed Muizzu has said, underlining that it would further strengthen the Indian Ocean island nation's independence and autonomy.
The Indian Navy will conduct a large-scale multilateral maritime engagement exercise with African countries in April, aiming to enhance interoperability with African navies and further strengthen maritime security cooperation. The exercise, titled "AIKEYME" (Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement), will see the participation of several African nations, including Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, and South Africa. The exercise is part of India's growing engagement with the Global South, as outlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "MAHASAGAR" vision for mutual and holistic advancement in the region.
Following a high-level meeting in New Delhi on February 2 between the two sides, India agreed to replace its military personnel operating the three aviation platforms in the Maldives by May 10. The first batch left the island nation well before March 10.
The maiden Africa India Key Maritime Engagement exercise will be held from April 13 to 18 off the coast of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The avoidable stresses and strains in ties helped in one way. It showed for the entire region how a matured India handled diplomatic relations, especially with a smaller and suspicious neighbour, with practised dignity and patience, unruffled by provocations in word, deed and action, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
China showcased its latest military hardware, including hypersonic and ballistic missiles, during a parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of its victory against Japanese aggression in World War II. President Xi Jinping called for world peace and national rejuvenation.
India and the Maldives are in discussions for keeping the Indian military platforms in the island nation and a core group that both sides agreed to set up will look at the details relating to it, official sources said on Sunday.
The parliamentary election result was also to prove that the Maldivians want "autonomy in choosing their future, without foreign coercion," President Muizzu said, without naming any country, according to the Sun.mv news portal.
The fire broke out in M. Nirufehi area near the Maaveyo Mosque around 12:30 am, according to news portal SunOnline international.
Maldives health minister resigns, appeals for support from international community.
A Bolivian cargo ship, owned by an Iranian firm was on Monday hijacked, apparently by Somalian pirates in the territorial waters off Maldives, officials said, even as Maldivian forces have sought Indian Navy's help for its rescue.
Six warships are taking part in the five-day exercises code named 'Dosti XI'. Indian Coast Guard ships 'Sankalp' and 'Subhadra' are participating in the war games, while 'Huravee', 'Ghazee' and 'Shaheed Ali' of the Maldivian National Defence Force represent the Maldivian Coast Guard.
Three weeks after India handed over a coastal radar system to the Maldives, Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar, chief of the naval staff, met Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and other senior leaders of the island nation in its capital Male with a focus on further boosting the bilateral defence ties.
Twenty-six foreign leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, will attend China's V-Day commemorations on September 3. Japan has expressed concerns about the event's anti-Japanese overtones.
The message from Sunday's event will undoubtedly reverberate globally. It's a landmark occasion that will be remembered for generations and will inspire many other states to introduce the story of Rajendra Chola into school curricula, says Tarun Vijay.
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as angry protesters stormed the prime minister's office in Colombo, hours after president Gotabaya Rajapksa fled to the Maldives on a military jet, amid the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
'Granting the country's highest civilian honour to Prime Minister Modi was surprising as it indicated the government was going out of its way to have India as a close partner.'
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu's party secured a 'supermajority' in Parliament by winning over 60 seats in Sunday's crucial parliamentary election, seen as a litmus test for the pro-Beijing politician whose policies are being closely watched by both India and China amidst regional power dynamics.
India's silence on this week's troubles in the Maldives is puzzling, says Rajeev Sharma.
30 years ago, after India sent in troops to resolve a crisis in the Maldives, Ambassador B S Prakash was part of an Indian government team assigned to the islands to help the then president. This is what he discovered. A Must Read!
'The greatness of India can be experienced by meeting Indians on the frontiers of India.' 'Every citizen on the border is a soldier'
'Agreements signed between the Maldives and China have seriously worried India.'
Would it serve India's interest to go to war with China over the Maldives, asks Aditi Phadnis.
'Given China's past behaviour and their territorial claims, should we be sceptical regarding China's willingness to adhere to these agreements fully? The answer is yes.' 'As Ronald Reagan famously said in the context of the SALT talks, 'Trust, but verify!' India should also do the same.' 'This has already begun with foot patrolling, drones, satellite imagery and so on. India's military deployment did mirror China's and will continue to do so in the future.'
Saturday's Quad meeting in Delaware is taking place against the backdrop of China's assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, its sabre-rattling in the Taiwan Strait and increasing footprints in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, asserts Rup Narayan Das.
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