Maldivians voted for no foreign troops; to speak to envoy, Muizzu says

President-elect Dr Mohamed Muizzu has said that the people of Maldives have decided that they do not want Indian troops to remain in the Maldives and that he will inform the Indian envoy about it.

Muizzu made the remarks while speaking at his victory rally held at the Social Centre on Monday evening.

"Those who have deployed [Indian] troops here would not want to keep them here if we don't want it. The people have decide and don't want Indian troops to stay in the Maldives. Therefore, foreign soldiers cannot be here against our sentiments, against our will," Muizzu said as he addressed the people for the first time since the election results.

“So, I have to tell the ambassador who is going to meet me that we will have a very good relationship with these values."

Before mentioning the Indian army in his 30-minute speech, Muizzu said he was receiving many invitations to meet ambassadors of various countries during the transitional phase. He said he would meet all of them as per the existing procedure.

"We will also meet with our neighbouring countries. I will prioritise a policy that protects the interests of the country. Our foreign policy will be a pro-Maldives policy, and the countries that respect this policy will be closest to us,” he said. 

"Hopefully, I believe that all countries in the world will want to respect our own identity [and] recognize that we have the right to protect our freedoms as they do theirs”.

One of the most strongly spoken sentiments of Muizzu during his campaign was the withdrawal of Indian troops from Maldives. Repeating that on Monday evening, Muizzu said he would succeed in withdrawing Indian troops from Maldives.

"The foreign troops in this country will hopefully be withdrawn from this country within the regulation. I am sure that will be achieved," Muizzu said.

Muizzu added:

"In the same [foreign ambassadors'] meetings, we will talk about it [the debt] and hopefully I am 100% sure that we will achieve everything through good diplomacy," Muizzu said without naming a specific country.

"This is the 21st century; this is a globalised nation. I don't see it going any other way. Hopefully we will achieve it [foreign troops and debt resolution] as the people want”.