📷 Photo: Gerard Larose, Seychelles Tourism Board via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
VICTORIA, Seychelles —
President Patrick Herminie has accepted an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to attend the 14 July Bastille Day celebrations on La Réunion as guest of honour, in a gesture that underlines the depth of the bilateral relationship between Seychelles and France at a moment when both countries are marking 50 years of formal diplomatic ties. The invitation was formally conveyed to President Herminie through the French Ambassador to Seychelles, Anne Tallineau, at a recent ceremony in Victoria attended by senior members of the Seychelles government.
In a statement on the upcoming visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Seychelles noted that 2026 marks 50 years of formal diplomatic relations between Seychelles and France, and that the bond between the two countries is rooted in a shared history and a common vision for the Indian Ocean. The anniversary year has brought a sustained programme of high-level engagement, including a meeting in May 2026 between Seychelles Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora Barry Faure and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on the margins of the Africa Forward Summit, where the two ministers reaffirmed the partnership in maritime security, climate, and regional leadership.
The decision to invite President Herminie as guest of honour at the La Réunion commemoration, ahead of the main parade on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, places the Seychelles-France relationship at the centre of France’s national day in the Indian Ocean for 2026. The visit will also be the first official overseas engagement by President Herminie since Seychelles celebrated its own Golden Jubilee of independence on 29 June 2026, when the African Union Commission Chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, formally congratulated the government and people of Seychelles on the historic milestone.
Speaking at the reception hosted by Ambassador Tallineau at the French Embassy in Victoria, Minister Faure described France as one of Seychelles’ closest partners, an assessment echoed by the French side. Bilateral relations between the two countries have, according to the French Embassy in Victoria, long been characterised as excellent and durable, anchored in a shared history, the common use of the French language, and a maritime border that makes Seychelles an immediate neighbour of France through La Réunion and Mayotte.
Practical cooperation between the two countries spans a wide range of sectors. According to the French Embassy’s published account, the partnership is reinforced through military cooperation between the French Armed Forces in the Southern Indian Ocean and the Seychelles Coast Guard, including joint maritime patrols and the secondment of a maritime adviser to the Seychelles Government. The educational dimension is equally significant. A trilingual master’s degree, the Mastri programme, co-developed by the universities of Seychelles, La Réunion, and Aix-Marseille, is due to launch in September 2026. The framework cooperation agreement signed in 2003 between Seychelles and France, on behalf of La Réunion, covers education, environment, tourism, health, media, and energy, and is renewed through rolling action plans.
The visit is also being framed as a moment for France and Seychelles to coordinate their positions within the Indian Ocean Commission. France assumed the chairmanship of the Commission de l’océan Indien from Comoros on 28 June 2026, a transition that the two foreign ministers had described as opening a renewed period of regional leadership. The IOC, headquartered in Mauritius, brings together Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, France (through La Réunion), and Seychelles, and is the principal regional body coordinating maritime security, climate adaptation, and the blue economy across the western Indian Ocean.
President Herminie’s presence on La Réunion on 14 July will also give the two presidents an opportunity to discuss the deepening of cooperation in concrete terms, including maritime surveillance capacity, fisheries management, and the response to shared natural risks, areas where French civil protection teams have already supported their Seychellois counterparts. The visit closes a year in which Seychelles has marked the jubilee of its own independence, and France has reciprocated by foregrounding the regional partnership in its national day observances.
Sources cited: Seychelles Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Strengthening the ties of the Indian Ocean,” 13 May 2026. French Embassy in Seychelles, “Bilateral relations”. Seychelles National Assembly, “Ambassador of the Republic of France to Seychelles Pays a Courtesy Call on the Speaker of the National Assembly,” 19 November 2025. African Union, “AU Commission Chairperson Congratulates the Republic Seychelles on the 50th Anniversary of Independence,” 29 June 2026.
Source: SN
