Seychelles President Danny Faure will be in India for a five-day visit from Friday. He will arrive in Ahmedabad in the evening and head to Goa from where he will proceed to Delhi on Sunday. He will be in Dehradun on day five of his India visit.
Faure's visit assumes significance as it comes within weeks of Seychelles cancelling the joint project to develop one of its strategic outer islands, Assumption Island, as a joint naval base. The agreement for this had been signed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Seychelles in 2015, but the proposal had met with much opposition within the island country, and Faure had recently announced cancellation of the project.
The Assumption Island project was seen as a counter to China having developed a naval base in Djibouti. With China making headway with its 'string of pearls' plans in the Indian Ocean, India is keen to counter it by beefing up its own presence and influence on these waters, where India considers itself as the primary player. The deal with France for use of each others' naval facilities was also primarily aimed at India getting access to Reunion Island, the French-held territory in the Indian Ocean.
India will be handing a Dornier aircraft (a twin engine general purpose plane, used by the Indian Air Force and Coast Guard) to Seychelles. Faure would also be visiting the naval base in Goa.
Faure is coming with a large delegation that includes ministers of habitat, fisheries and agriculture. The president, while speaking to the press in Seychelles, reportedly said the matter of Assumption Island was over and he would not be discussing the same in India. But would India give up so easily? India has not made much headway in consolidating its presence in the Indian Ocean. It's one time ally, Maldives, is leaning distinctly towards China. Could the Seychelles deal be presented again in a more lucrative way?