A greater trust of India’s more open and less cluttered offers of aid in terms of money as in the case of Sri Lanka and growing faith in offers of collaboration with India’s growing expertise in many strategic areas as offered to Indonesia and Mauritius have been evident in the high-profile visit of Prime Minister Modi to these nations in most recent times
With a promise of India-Mauritius ties advancing across all fronts, on top of bilateral relations rising to a higher degree of trust at various levels, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Port Louis could not have gone better.
Apart from the historic and cultural ties, partnerships in various domains are to expand with India’s expertise in sectors ranging from space science and satellite technology to primary education and advanced healthcare being made available to the island nation.
The visit reinforces India’s diplomatic thrust to build better relations with a host of countries in the Indian Ocean arc from Indonesia through Sri Lanka to Mauritius, the objective being the establishment of a counterbalancing presence for India in the region against China’s pervasive moves to buy influence.
India and world powers in the West suffer from no illusion that China’s sway will cease to exist in countries of strategic importance in the Indo-Pacific though they may have been hurt from the debt trap that comes along China’s helping hand.
A greater trust of India’s more open and less cluttered offers of aid in terms of money as in the case of Sri Lanka and growing faith in offers of collaboration with India’s growing expertise in many strategic areas as offered to Indonesia and Mauritius have been evident in the high-profile visit of Prime Minister Modi to these nations in most recent times.
“Strategic partnerships” forms a term the foreign office is seen to use increasingly in describing ties with countries of the Global South that India interacts with. It is true that ties with Mauritius are set to move up substantially with the bilateral partnership in the domains of development, defence and maritime security being hailed by the leaders of both nations — Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Navinchandra Ramagoolam — as a standard for nation-to-nation ties in the region.
More significantly, India will be contributing to the developmental needs of Mauritius through a series of pacts by which assistance will be provided not only in launching an India-Mauritius satellite but also improving the maritime infrastructure in Wave Rider Buoys and a Multi-hazard Emergency System in Mauritius to help it build disaster preparedness and response system. The system will also help with better weather and climate forecasting with Isro and the ministry of earth sciences to carry out the tasks and provide the data to the host country.
With a sizeable section of the Mauritius population having Indian roots and which was reflected in the many greetings heard at the meetings in Indian languages like Bhojpuri and Maithri, the emotional and spiritual connect between the two nations will also be further sustained with exchanges through the Char Dham and Ramayana trail.
With the Indian PM being honoured in his presence at the Mauritius national day as the chief guest, the ties can be said to be at their warmest with the PM reciprocating the sentiment by lauding the Indian community for preserving their cultural roots. There will also be a lasting symbol, in concrete, of ties as India is to construct the Mauritius parliament building.
