OPINION | India–Seychelles: Boosting maritime security as central pillar of cooperation

PM Modi's state visit to Seychelles on June 27-29, 2026, comes after a gap of 11 years, coinciding with Seychelles' 50th Independence Day and 50 years of India-Seychelles diplomatic relations. He is the first Indian PM to attend the National Day celebrations as a Guest of Honour and to address their National Assembly.

This visit follows Seychelles President Dr Herminie's State Visit to India in February this year, signalling a decisive reset after a slowdown in ties between 2020 and 2025.

Despite the setback in 2018, when Seychelles did not move forward with the proposed building of an Indian naval facility on one of the archipelago’s islands. Both sides have chosen to forge their relations in the wider and deeper context. PM’s visit highlights these deep historic ties, diaspora, and strategic cooperation between the two nations.  

Seychelles is a cornerstone of India's Global South strategy, serving as a critical maritime partner in the Western Indian Ocean. The significance of Seychelles has grown over the years as the Indian Ocean has emerged as one of the world’s principal theatres of competition. There are various dimensions to India-Seychelles relations. We highlight the most relevant ones.

Strategic and geopolitical context

Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands astride strategic sea lines of communication near the Mozambique Channel, is a key pillar of India's Vision MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions).

With limited surveillance capabilities, Seychelles relies on India as its partner of first choice against piracy, drug trafficking, illegal fishing, and other transnational threats in the Western Indian Ocean.

This helps reinforce peace, security and stability in the Indian Ocean region through enhanced maritime domain awareness, information sharing, capacity building and coordinated operational management.

It is an important member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), an intergovernmental organisation comprising 23 member states bordering the Indian Ocean.

It focuses on maritime security, trade facilitation, disaster risk management, and the Blue Economy. In addition, it can play a vital role in the Indo-Pacific and a bridge for India and Africa relations due to its unique geographical location.

Deepening maritime security partnership

Seychelles is dispersed over a vast maritime space, placing it at the crossroads of some of the world’s busiest sea routes. These Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs) connect East Africa, West Asia, South Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific. Ensuring that these routes remain secure has become an increasingly important objective for countries that depend on uninterrupted global trade, including India.

Both nations remain committed to ensuring a free, open, safe and secure Indian Ocean Region, underpinned by respect for international law, freedom of navigation and a rules-based maritime order.

Given the country’s EEZ of over 1.3 million square kilometres, maintaining surveillance across such an extensive maritime area presents significant challenges for a small island nation with limited resources. Under bilateral arrangements, Indian Navy ships periodically conduct hydrographic surveys of Seychelles’ ports and surrounding waters.

The resulting data contributes to updated nautical charts, safer navigation, improved maritime infrastructure planning and better management of marine resources.

The establishment of Coastal Surveillance Radar Systems across Seychelles by India enhances maritime awareness by enabling authorities to monitor vessel movements across surrounding waters in real time. Improved surveillance supports both countries in tracking maritime activity, responding to security incidents and maintaining greater awareness of developments in the western Indian Ocean.

During PM Modi’s visit, he will be handing over a Fast Patrol Vessel to the Seychelles Coast Guard, the latest in a series of capability transfers that include two Dornier aircraft, patrol boats, and embedded Indian defence personnel. The 11th edition of Exercise LAMITYE (March 2026) was elevated for the first time to tri-service level. Seychelles has conveyed its intent to join the Colombo Security Conclave as a full member and participates in multilateral exercises MILAN and PRAGATI.

Trade, investment, connectivity and tourism

This is yet another strong pillar of collaboration between the two nations. Seychelles can emerge for India as a major investment destination in areas such as housing, digital technology and AI, financial services, blue economy, tourism and fisheries sectors.

In addition, the increase in tourists visiting from India has strengthened the resilience of the tourism sector in Seychelles. In addition, people-to-people ties are also very robust. The Indian diaspora of approximately 15,000—nearly 12 per cent of Seychelles' population of 133,000—comprises 6,000 PIOs of Gujarati and Tamil descent and 9,000 Indian nationals.

Maritime security remains at the centrepiece of cooperation between the two countries. Trade, investment and tourism remain strong avenues of cooperation. On the one hand, thanks to the unique geographic position of Seychelles. It gives India a strong maritime and strategic foothold in the Western Indian Ocean region. In turn, Seychelles can leverage its blue economy to benefit from the trade, investment and rising tourism from India, along with further strengthening its people-to-people and diaspora connections with India. This leads to enhanced bilateral cooperation between the two Indian Ocean nations.

Mohit Anand is professor of international business and strategy at EMLYON Business School, France. Rajesh Mehta is an international affairs expert working on innovation and public policy.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.