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Maldives: Days after the withdrawal of Indian troops, Maldives has admitted that its troops do not have the capability to fly the three aircraft provided by India. This news was published in the local media on Sunday under the Defense Minister of both the countries, Ghassan Maumoon. According to Maumoon, Maldivian soldiers started training in flying aircraft but they could not complete it and now the situation is that not a single of their soldiers can fly the aircraft provided by India.
According to a report, Maumoon said in a press conference that the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) still does not have any soldiers capable of flying aircraft.
Answering a question, Maumoon said, 'Under the agreement made during the previous government, some soldiers had started taking training in flying a Dornier aircraft and two helicopters received from India. But there is still no soldier who can fly this aircraft. The reason is that it was a training which had to go through many stages, our soldiers could not complete this training due to various reasons. Therefore, at present there is no soldier in our army who has a license to fly HAL aircraft and Dornier or is fully capable of flying the aircraft.
However, when Muizzoo was in the opposition, senior officials of his party criticized the previous government, saying that the Maldivian military had capable pilots but still Indian soldiers were assigned to fly the aircraft. But now the minister of his own government has exposed him.
Indian soldiers return, if Maldives army is not capable then who is flying the plane?
A day before Maumoon's comments, Maldivian Foreign Minister Musa Zameer said that following the withdrawal of 76 Indian soldiers in the island nation, they have been replaced by technical experts sent from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The manufacturer of the helicopters sent by India to Maldives was Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
The main reason for Indian soldiers going to Maldives was to train the army there to fly the planes provided by India. India had given two HAL helicopters to Maldives during the governments of former Presidents Mohammed Nasheed and Abdulla Yameen. Maldives had received Dornier aircraft from India during the government of former President Ibrahim Solih.
The Foreign Minister of Maldives said that the recent agreement with India to appoint technical experts to operate aircraft in place of soldiers also includes training of Maldivian soldiers.