📷 Photo: Vice President’s Secretariat (Press Information Bureau, Government of India), via Wikimedia Commons, GODL-India
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Seychelles on Saturday for a three-day state visit, the first by an Indian head of government in more than ten years, timed to two overlapping milestones that Victoria is billing as the centrepiece of its Golden Jubilee. As the Seychelles Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora confirmed on Wednesday, the trip also coincides with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, formally established in the days after Seychelles’ independence in June 1976.
Modi is travelling at the personal invitation of President Patrick Herminie and will be the guest of honour at the National Day Parade at Stad Linite on Sunday 28 June. According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, he will call on Herminie at State House before the two leaders hold bilateral talks aimed at “further strengthening cooperation”, the standard formulation, but one that in this case covers maritime security, defence training, blue-economy support and a small but growing development partnership. He will also preside over the handover of Indian donations and inaugurate projects of national significance, the MEA added, and will participate in cultural events staged in his honour.
The timing is deliberate on both sides. Herminie paid a state visit to New Delhi in February that produced a joint statement, the so-called Sesel vision document, that set out cooperation across sustainability, economic growth and security for the next decade. Modi’s return visit, the first by an Indian prime minister since his own trip in March 2015, is meant to lock in that agenda before the end of India’s current parliamentary term. New Delhi is also underlining that ties with small island states remain a foreign-policy priority at a moment when China and the Gulf states are both expanding their footprint in the western Indian Ocean.
Modi will not be the only foreign dignitary in Victoria this weekend. According to the same MFA notice, the parade will be attended by the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam; the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf; the Minister of State at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan; the Chinese Minister of Transport, Liu Wei; and the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Presidential Executive Office, Maxim Oreshkin. The lineup is a diplomatic roll-call that underscores how Seychelles, despite a population of just over 100,000, sits at the intersection of several competing regional interests.
India’s bilateral relationship with Seychelles runs deeper than most visitors realise. New Delhi was among the first countries to recognise Seychelles after independence on 29 June 1976, and the Indian Council of World Affairs notes that INS Nilgiri, a frigate, participated in the original independence celebrations the same week. India opened a High Commission in Victoria in 1979, and bilateral cooperation has since grown to cover the Assumption Island airstrip project, a long-running Line of Credit that has financed the Supreme Court building and a host of smaller community projects, and a small Indian military training contingent that has trained several generations of Seychelles Defence Forces personnel. Two Indian Navy ships are expected to participate in this weekend’s parade.
For Victoria, the visit is also a chance to reset the optics after a quieter period in the bilateral relationship. The Sesel vision, agreed in February, includes commitments on digital public infrastructure, renewable energy, health, and capacity building, areas where Seychelles has been openly courting Indian expertise as it tries to diversify its economy beyond tourism. Herminie’s government has also been pushing for faster disbursement of existing lines of credit, and a successful Modi visit would help unblock some of those projects.
Modi is expected to address the National Assembly during his stay and to interact with members of the Indian diaspora, which the Indian High Commission in Victoria estimates at roughly 10,000 people, the largest resident foreign community in the country. He departs on Monday 29 June, the day that marks exactly 50 years since Seychelles raised its own flag for the first time.
Source: SN
