Relations between India and Maldives have been tense for several days.
Relations have soured ever since China-backed President Mohammad Muizzu won the elections.
Recently, when PM Modi visited Lakshadweep, three ministers of Maldives made derogatory comments. India had to express its displeasure on this.
Now, amidst the ongoing tension between the two countries, the Maldives government has taken a big step.
It has signed an agreement with Turkey to purchase drones for patrolling its exclusive economic zone. Till now Maldives and India used to jointly patrol this area in the Indian Ocean.
According to local media reports of Maldives, Male has signed an MoU with a Turkish company to purchase military drones.
Through this, Maldives will monitor its water area. For this, an amount of $37 million has also been allocated to the Maldives National Defense Force from the budget.
This deal has been made when Maldives had given an ultimatum to India to withdraw its troops by March 15 only two days ago.
At present, about 88 Indian soldiers are deployed in Maldives, who help the people of Maldives.
Maldives President Mohammed Muizzu is considered close to China. Even during the elections, Muizzu had launched an anti-India campaign and had promised that if his government was formed, Indian troops would have to leave Maldives.
After the victory, now Muizzu has given time till March 15. Recently, when relations with India were deteriorating, Muizzu had also visited China.
During the five-day Chinese tour, Muizzu also met Chinese President Xi Jinping and signed many important agreements including tourism.
Actually, a few days ago PM Modi had visited Lakshadweep. During this time, many users on social media in India had appealed that Indians should choose Lakshadweep as a tourist destination instead of Maldives.
Such appeals were made from many social media handles. After this, three Maldivian ministers made objectionable comments against PM Modi, after which all three were suspended by the Maldivian government.
However, since then relations between India and Maldives have further soured.