Maldives new President Mohamed Muizzu has campaigned on altering the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago's "India first" policy.
  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    3•7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    MALE, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Maldives new President Mohamed Muizzu, who campaigned on altering the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago’s “India first” policy, has requested India withdraw its military from the country.

    Muizzu won the presidential election in September, ousting Ibrahim Solih in a runoff after promising to remove a small Indian military presence of some 75 personnel.

    “The Maldivian people had given him (Muizzu) a strong mandate to make the request to India and expressed the hope that India will honour the democratic will of the people of the Maldives,” the president’s office said in a statement on Saturday.

    India’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    At his inauguration on Friday, Muizzu said, “I will ensure that this country has no foreign military presence on its soil.”

    “It was agreed that the two governments would discuss workable solutions for continued cooperation,” a senior Indian government official said on condition of anonymity, without clarifying whether India would return its military.

    The original article contains 209 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 22%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • DominusOfMegadeusEnglish
      8•7 months ago

      I would guess for similar reasons that the United States has military bases all over the fucking place.

      • @[email protected]English
        6•7 months ago

        Including a major one at Diego Garcia, not too far south of the Maldives.

        (Way bigger than the 75 personnel the article says India has stationed in the Maldives, by the way.)