Abdulla Shahid, the leader of the main opposition party MDP, says the current government can’t say how many Indian soldiers are in the Maldives because there aren’t any. Shahid used to be the foreign minister. Before, the current government was against MDP and criticized them for being too close to India. They even ran a campaign called ‘India Out’.
In an interview, Shahid accused the current government of lying to get into power. He said they used to shout ‘India Out’ to win votes, but now they’re not saying anything about it. The previous opposition, PPM-PNC, said there were thousands of Indian soldiers here. But Shahid says that’s not true. The current government could check the agreements made with India if they wanted to, but they haven’t.
Shahid thinks the current government knows there were no secret agreements threatening the Maldives’ independence. He says if there were thousands of Indian soldiers here, they would have been sent back or the numbers would have been made public. But that hasn’t happened because there are no Indian soldiers here.
Shahid also mentioned that changing the uniforms of Indian technical staff working with helicopters and planes for emergencies doesn’t mean kicking out Indian soldiers. He warned that if the Maldives’ foreign policy is based on nonsense like this, it will damage relations not just with India but with other countries too.
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu once said an agreement was made with India to send back troops, but the government still hasn’t said how many soldiers were here.
