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India's foreign minister to visit Seychelles, meet President Ramkalawan

Victoria, Seychelles | November 26, 2020, Thursday @ 18:21 in National » DIPLOMACY | By: Betymie Bonnelame | Views: 5144
India's foreign minister to visit Seychelles, meet President Ramkalawan

Maison Queau de Quincy which house the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Seychelles News Agency)

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(Seychelles News Agency) - The Minister of External Affairs of India will make an official visit to Seychelles on Friday, November 27, the island nation's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

During his two-day visit, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will call on President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House. 

He will also meet with his Seychellois counterpart, Sylvestre Radegonde, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, to discuss bilateral cooperation.

According to the WION news agency the External Affairs Minister "will call-on the newly elected President of Seychelles H.E. Mr. Wavel Ramkalawan to present greetings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss with him the priorities of the new government and avenues for further strengthening India-Seychelles bilateral relations."

Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, is benefitting from several construction-related projects paid for by the Indian government. These include the building of a police headquarters, an Attorney General's office, a government house, an international convention centre and a completed Magistrate's Court among others.

The status of the coastguard facility on Assumption might be mentioned as Jaishankar had previously visited the islands as Foreign Secretary in January 2018 in an effort to salvage the deal and build consensus for it.

A 20-year-agreement signed in early 2018 for the Indian government to use one of the Seychelles' islands -- Assumption -- as a military base became controversial with the government supporting the plan but opposition members in the sixth National Assembly led by Ramkalawan and many private citizens against it.

Ramkalawan reiterated his stance on the subject in the presidential debate when he said that there will never be a foreign power with a military base in Seychelles and that is why LDS (Linyon Demokratik Seselwa) brought a full stop to the Assumption agreement between Seychelles and India.

The Indian delegation will leave Seychelles on Saturday, November 28.

Seychelles and India established diplomatic relations in 1976. 

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Tags: India-Seychelles bilateral relations, National Assembly

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