Maldives will return Indian military as soon as possible, says incoming president

Maldives will work to return Indian military personnel from its shores "as soon as possible," President-elect Mohamed Muizzu told Reuters on Sunday, insisting it was the top foreign policy priority for the tiny Indian Ocean island chain.

Muizzu won the Maldives' presidential election last month, beating incumbent President Ibrahim Solih in a second-round runoff, and will take office on Nov. 17.

Returning Indian military was a core policy of his election campaign.


"I will be holding frank and detailed diplomatic consultations with India to work out details of sending back military personnel from the Maldives as soon as possible," he told Reuters in an online interview from Male.

"The focus is not on the actual number of military personnel here, it is on not having any at all in the Maldives. We will discuss with the Indian government and find out a way forward for this."