The Maldivian government has revealed that more than 100 bilateral agreements have been signed with India in the past five years, excluding agreements for various projects.

The President’s Office’s Public Policy Undersecretary, Mohamed Firzul, told a news conference this evening that the government is committed to starting the process of removing points that seem to undermine the sovereignty of the country from these agreements.

Firzul said the agreements with India should be studied and more than 100 agreements are not a small number to study. He also disclosed the number of Indian troops in the country.

He noted that according to the information they have gathered so far, there are 77 Indian troops stationed in the Maldives. This includes 24 soldiers to maintain or fly one helicopter, 25 to fly the Dornier aircraft and 26 to fly a second helicopter. In addition to these numbers, two soldiers are involved in maintenance and engineering work.

Firzul said helicopters and Dornier aircraft have carried out 661 medical evacuations, 220 surveillance operations, 100 search mission operations, aircrew transfers, COVID sample collection, VIP operations and various defense related training activities.