Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu will “hopefully” visit India “very soon,” his foreign minister Moosa Zameer said on Thursday.
Zameer, who is on his
first official visit
to India, and the only leader of Muizzu-led government travelling to New Delhi since November last year.
Muizzu is the first Maldivian leader who broke the tradition of Maldivian Presidents making their first overseas trip to India. He instead visited Turkey for his first official visit and China for his first diplomatic visit.
“We (the Maldives government) did discuss with Delhi about a visit. But for the convenience of both sides, we thought it might be okay for us to delay it a little bit. So, in fact, even today, with my discussions with External Affairs minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, we are discussing the President’s visit to Delhi very soon. Hopefully,”
Zameer
told ANI.
Muizzu, who was elected as Maldives’ President in September last year, in his election campaign raised “India Out” slogan, calling for all Indian military personnel to leave the island nation.
He was sworn in in November and soon after that, he reiterated his call for Indian troops to leave the country in phases with the first group leaving on March 10 and the second group departing the island by May 10 this year.
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Not just this, Muizzu also denied renewing the hydrographic agreement, signed in 2019, that allowed India to comprehensively study the territorial waters of Maldives and was due for renewal in June 2024.
In January this year, Muizzu also had said his “country’s small size doesn’t give anyone the licence to bully it” — a jibe at India.
“The Maldives is not in any country’s backyard. We may be small but that doesn’t give you the license to bully us,” the Maldivian President said on his return from China earlier this year.
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We are discussing Muizzu’s visit to India very soon: Maldives foreign minister
