The Maldives wants India to remove it’s military helicopters and military personnel posted there as an agreement has been expired in June, its envoy said. India and China are on loggerheads there as China is building roads and bridges in the Indian Ocean and India has provided Maldives with military and civilian aid for decades.
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The Maldives’ ambassador in India, Ahmed Mohamed, told Reuters that two military helicopters provided by India were mainly used for medical evacuations but were no longer required as the islands had built up enough resources of its own.
“They were very useful in the past but with the development of adequate infrastructure, facilities and resources we are now in a position to handle medical evacuations on our own,” he said.
However India and Maldives are still having joint patrols in the island’s exclusive economic zone every month, Mohamed said. “We are still there, our two helicopters and the men,” an Indian navy spokesman said on Wednesday, adding the foreign ministry was handling the situation.
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China, which opened an embassy in the Maldives in 2011, has rapidly built ties with the tropical island chain as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.