Would like to see Indian troops withdraw within a week of taking office: Muizzu

President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has said that the hope is to resolve the issue of Indian troops within the first week of taking office.

In his first interview with a foreign news agency, Muizzu told Al Jazeera that the presence of Indian troops in the Maldives was one of the biggest reasons why the people did not want to give the current government a second term.

He said he would work to withdraw Indian troops from the Maldives from the first day he took office. He said he had already discussed the matter with the Indian High Commissioner.

Asked whether he would withdraw Indian troops within a year of taking office, Muizzu said he hoped to do so within the first week. He said he takes it very seriously.

In addition, Muizzu said that the people of the Maldives do not want any country's troops to stay in the country. He said that the Maldives is a safe country and this is not a country with a large military, so the people of the Maldives do not feel safe with the presence of another country’s troops here.

It is not clear how many Indian troops are in the Maldives at the moment. He further revealed that reports claim that the amount could be anywhere between a hundred and a thousand.

Muizzu said the hope is that there will be at most 10 or 20 Indian troops in the Maldives.

Asked if he intends to strengthen military ties with other countries like China after withdrawing Indian troops from the Maldives, Muizzu said Maldives is a very small country.

Therefore, he does not want to engage with other major countries in such a way and wants to remain neutral. He said he did not want to bring any other country's army here and that was not his policy.