India and Mauritius are set to unveil a range of measures to enhance maritime security, defence and scientific cooperation during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Indian Ocean country next week, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said on Saturday.
Modi, who will be in Mauritius during March 11-12 at the invitation of Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam, will be the chief guest at National Day celebrations in Port Louis next Wednesday. An armed forces contingent from India will participate in the celebrations along with a warship of the Indian Navy and the Akash Ganga skydiving team of the Indian Air Force.
Cooperation in maritime security and defence between the two sides has grown significantly over the past decade, with India providing two vessels and fast interceptor craft to the Mauritius Coast Guard. India also helped expand a strategic airstrip and jetty on Agaléga, one of the outer islands of Mauritius, to bolster the country’s ability to monitor its vast exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 2.3 million sq km.
During the Prime Minister’s visit, the Indian Navy and Mauritius authorities are set to sign a technical agreement on exchanging information on white shipping, Misri told a media briefing. The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and the Mauritius Prime Minister’s Office will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to create a framework for cooperating in maritime zone management and ocean observation and research, he said.
The white shipping agreement will enhance Mauritius’s maritime security and safety of its trading corridors and bolster regional cooperation in real-time sharing of data. “It will enable Indian and Mauritius authorities to cooperate in preventing illegal activities and improve Mauritius’s maritime domain awareness in the region,” Misri said.
Modi and Ramgoolam will jointly inaugurate a civil service college and a health centre built with Indian grants. Over the past decade, India has provided $1.1 billion as development assistance to Mauritius, including $729 million through credit lines and $427 million as grants. Among the projects completed with Indian assistance are the metro express, the Supreme Court building and social housing units.
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Financial Crime Commission of Mauritius will sign an MoU on combating financial crimes. This will enhance cooperation in intelligence and technical assistance to fight corruption and money laundering and help in identifying emerging trends in this area.
The ministry of public service and administrative reforms of Mauritius and India’s National Centre for Good Governance will sign a separate MoU on training 500 Mauritian civil servants over five years, Misri said.
Apart from participating in the National Day celebrations, Modi will meet Ramgoolam and new President Dharambeer Gokhool to review bilateral ties. He will also meet senior dignitaries and leaders of political parties, and interact with members of the Indian-origin community, who make up almost 70% of the population of Mauritius.
Mauritius forms an important pillar of India’s SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) vision that was unveiled by Modi during his last visit to the island country in 2015, Misri said. India is also assisting Mauritius in maritime surveillance and patrolling of its EEZ so that it can safeguard its blue economy assets from traditional and non-traditional challenges such as piracy and drug trafficking, he said.
Misri acknowledged that the upcoming visit will be an opportunity for Mauritius to brief the Indian side on ongoing negotiations with the UK for handing over control of the strategic Chagos Islands to Port Louis. He said India has consistently supported Mauritius’s sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in keeping with New Delhi’s long-standing position on decolonisation.
Last October, Britain said it had reached an understanding with the previous government of Pravind Jugnauth to cede sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, on the condition that the UK and the US would maintain a strategic military base on the atoll of Diego Garcia. Ramgoolam decided to revisit the understanding after defeating Jugnauth in last year’s general election.
“Naturally, after a new government has taken power in Mauritius, they have taken a relook at some of the provisions,” Misri said, adding that this process had also been impacted by the change of government in the US. It is now up to the three countries to reach a mutually acceptable deal, while India will continue to support Mauritius, he said.