Hello and welcome to the details of India navy to open strategic base near Maldives and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - India’s navy has said it is bolstering forces on strategically important islands close to the Maldives, with a new base set to open just days before Male starts sending home Indian forces. — Reuters pic
NEW DELHI, March 3 — India’s navy has said it is bolstering forces on “strategically important” islands close to the Maldives, with a new base set to open just days before Male starts sending home Indian forces.
Relations between India and the Maldives have soured since pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu won elections last year after promising to expel Indian forces.
India is suspicious of China’s growing presence in the archipelago nation, which straddles key east-west international shipping routes, and the new base will extend New Delhi’s “operational surveillance” of the area, the navy said in a statement late yesterday.
Muizzu has asked India to withdraw 89 security personnel based in the Maldives to operate reconnaissance aircraft, with the first batch due to leave by March 10 and all to depart within two months.
Advertisement
The new base, opening March 6 on India’s Lakshadweep islands, will turn an existing small detachment into an “independent naval unit”, according to the navy’s statement.
India’s Lakshadweep islands lie about 130 kilometres north of the Maldives, with the new naval base on the island of Minicoy situated at their closest point.
India’s navy already has a base on the Lakshadweep island of Kavaratti, but the new base will be about 258 kilometrescloser to the Maldives.
Advertisement
“Minicoy is the southernmost island of Lakshadweep which straddles the vital sea lines of communications,” the navy said.
It said the base will boost anti-piracy and anti-narcotic operations, and was part of a policy to “incrementally augment security infrastructure at the strategically important” islands. — AFP
These were the details of the news India navy to open strategic base near Maldives for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
