Even as India asserted that it remained an important development partner of the Maldives, the Ministry of External Affairs said India will replace its military personnel operating three aviation platforms in the island nation with "competent" Indian technical personnel.
Following the second meeting of the high-level core group to address the issue of the military personnel, the Maldivian foreign ministry said India will replace its military personnel in two phases by May 10.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu on Monday said the first group of Indian military personnel will be sent back before March 10 and the remaining manning ones will be withdrawn before May 10.
The second meeting of the core group took place in Delhi on February 2.
Giving an update on the matter, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday, "I would like to say that the present personnel will be replaced by competent Indian technical personnel."
India and Maldives had decided to set up the core group following a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mohamed Muizzu on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai in December.
At present, around 80 Indian military personnel are in the Maldives primarily to operate two helicopters and an aircraft which carried out hundreds of medical evacuations and humanitarian missions.
The ties between the India and Maldives came got strained since 45-year old Muizzu, a pro-China leader, came to power in November. Muizzu defeated India-friendly incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the presidential runoff held in September last year.
Muizzu maintained after assuming charge as the president that he will keep his election promise of evicting Indian military personnel from his country.
In his remarks, Jaiswal said India remained a committed development partner of the Maldives.
"We remain an important committed development partner for the Maldives," he said.
On budgetary allocation under India's development assistance to the Maldives, Jaiswal said a certain amount was allocated and it could be revised.
The budgetary allocation to the Maldives for 2023-24 was Rs 400 crore but the revised estimate showed that the outlay went up to Rs 770.90 crore which is almost double of the initial amount.
(with PTI inputs)
