India & Seychelles Sign Six MoUs After PM Modi’s Talks With Faure
Seychelles’ refusal to ratify a joint naval base project with India at Assumption Island has marred the visit.
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Following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Danny Faure on Monday, 25 June, India and Seychelles signed six Memorandums of Understanding.
The meeting between the two heads of state was held at Hyderabad House.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted, "Welcoming the esteemed guest at Hyderabad House! PM @narendramodi received the President of Seychelles Danny Antoine Rollen Faure for bilateral talks. Special ties with a maritime neighbour." Faure, who is on his first bilateral visit to India, was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Modi this morning.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also called on the visiting leader and discussed with him expanding bilateral cooperation in key areas, including capacity building and human resource development.
Faure, who arrived in Delhi on Sunday after visiting Ahmedabad and Goa, was received by Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar.
Faure landed in Gujarat on Friday as part of his six-day India tour.
He visited the Sabarmati Ashram on Saturday, where Mahatma Gandhi lived between 1917 and 1930.
In the visitors’ book, he wrote that "the principle of non-violence is what we need to teach the children of our world, and what was expressed by Gandhi many years ago remains relevant today".
Faure also visited the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA), where he held a meeting with the institute's director, Errol D'Souza.
The president of the 115-island nation is set to hold bilateral talks on Monday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a range of areas in which the two countries have historically cooperated.
At a press conference on 4 June, Faure had said Seychelles would develop military facilities on the island on its own, and that the project with India "will not move forward". Reports suggest that the issue may not feature in the discussion at all when the two leaders hold their formal talks.
There had been growing political opposition in Seychelles to a pact it signed with India in 2015 to develop a naval facility on Assumption Island – a deal that would have given India a strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean Region against a surging China.
(WIth inputs from PTI)
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