Yameen says disappointed in govt's India troops removal remarks

Former President Abdulla Yameen said on Saturday that he is disappointed with the government's claim that the removal of Indian troops will not be easy.

Yameen, who is currently under house arrest serving an 11-year jail sentence, made the remarks while attending a rally held by the People's National Front (PNF), a new party he is trying to form after splitting with the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), which is run jointly with President Mohamed Muizzu's People's National Congress (PNC) days after Muizzu assumed the presidency in November.

After his lawyer Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed spoke at the meeting, Yameen asked Jameel's opinion on two issues:

On the India issue, Yameen said:

"We came with great courage to remove the Indian troops. I was very disappointed when a minister in the President's Office said as such," he said.

Yameen, who is currently under house arrest, is prohibited from participating in political activities, but is occasionally seen in PNF activities. Yameen did not speak at Saturday night's rally, but was in attendance. He asked most of the questions at the meeting.

The remarks come a day before a "core group" formed between Maldives and India to resolve differences meet for a second time in India.

The group held its first meeting in Maldives on Sunday where the Maldives asked India to remove its troops in Maldives by March 15. 

Following the meeting, the Maldivian foreign ministry said India agreed to expedite the removal of its troops from Maldives, but the Indian external affairs ministry said discussions focused on finding ways to continue the use of Indian aircraft in search and rescue operations in Maldives. 

On Friday, the top diplomats of Maldives and India met on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Uganda. 

In a post on X following the meeting, Maldivian foreign minister Zameer said the meeting mainly discussed:

India and Maldives want to further strengthen and expand their relations, Zameer said.

Jaishankar also posted briefly in X after the meeting. He said he had had a "frank" conversation regarding the relationship between the two countries.

Maldives has recently said that there are 88 Indian troops in Maldives.

President Muizzu recently hit out at India amid a diplomatic row with the island nation's closest neighbour saying that the small size of Maldives is not a "licence" for anybody to "bully" the country.

The president indirectly responded to the strained relations between Maldives and India when he met reporters at the Velana International Airport (VIA) after returning from his first state visit, which was made to India's rival China.

In his statement, after announcing that he is looking for alternatives on a lot of things Maldives currently heavily relies on India for, he concluded his speech by saying in English, “We may be small, but that doesn't give you the license to bully us."

President Muizzu won the presidential election in September, ousting Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in a runoff after promising to remove Indian military presence from the Maldives.

The new government, which came to power on November 17, has formally requested India to remove its troops, with President Muizzu saying that India has agreed to withdraw the troops. 

Since then, a diplomatic row had erupted after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a video of his recent visit to Lakshadweep to promote tourism in the region.

Some Indians have said that Modi's video was released to tell people that Indians do not have to go to Maldives for holidays and can experience the beauty of Maldives while staying in their own country.

Authorities in Maldives have suspended three deputy ministers who have come under fire for their posts on X in which they are seen verbally abusing Modi and India.

The two countries have also summoned each other's envoys over the row.