Maldives signs a deal to purchase drones from Turkey

Maldives has signed a deal with Turkey to buy drones to patrol its exclusive economic zone waters in an yet another attempt to move away from India’s sphere of influence. So far, New Delhi and Male jointly patrolled this region in the Indian Ocean.

Maldives-based newspaper Adhadhu has recently reported that Male had signed an agreement with a Turkish company to purchase military drones to patrol the country's waters. It has allocated 37 million US dollars from the state's contingency budget to the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF). 

India-had maintained radar stations and surveillance aircraft, including the Dornier plane and two Dhruv helicopters gifted to Male over the past decade. 

For decades, India and China have been competing with each other for influence in Maldives, which is a few hundred nautical miles from Kerala and whose strategic location makes it important for both Asian powers.

Maldives President Muizzu said that this country was not located in the backyard of any country. "Even though our islands are small, we are a huge country with a very large exclusive economic zone of nine lakh square kilometers," he said in a veiled attack on India. "Maldives is one country that holds the largest proportion of this ocean. This ocean is not the property of a specific country, he said on January 13th

Maldives had begun the work to build its power and capacity to do continuous surveillance of the nine lakh square kilometer exclusive economic zone. "Hopefully, soon we will establish our capacity to manage this vast area he asserted.