New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth inaugurating a slew of projects at the Agalega Islands in Mauritius via video-conference on Thursday, India will now be able to expand its maritime security footprint and naval presence in the western Indian Ocean.
The projects inaugurated are a new airstrip and St James Jetty, along with six community development projects. According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, the inauguration of these projects is a testimony to the robust and decades-old development partnership between India and Mauritius and will fulfill the demand for better connectivity between the mainland Mauritius and Agalega, strengthen maritime security and foster socio-economic development.
Though the inauguration of the projects is being seen as a testimony to the robust development partnership between India and Mauritius, the real deal is that New Delhi has now got a strategic maritime stronghold in the western Indian Ocean region. Speaking on the occasion, Modi said that many traditional and non-traditional challenges are emerging in the Indian Ocean Region.
“All these challenges affect our economy,” he said. “To deal with these, India and Mauritius are natural partners in the field of maritime security. We are actively working to ensure security, prosperity and stability in the Indian Ocean Region.” Modi said that both countries are cooperating together in all areas like monitoring of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Mauritius, joint patrolling, hydrography and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
“Today, the inauguration of the airstrip and jetty at Agalega will further enhance our cooperation. This will also strengthen the blue economy in Mauritius,” he said. Agalega is a dependency of Mauritius, which consists of two outer islands located in the Indian Ocean, about 1,050 km north of the Mauritius Island. Under the Constitution of Mauritius, Agalega is a constituent island of the Republic of Mauritius.
Similarly to other Mauritian islands such as St Brandon, Agalega is run directly by the Prime Minister of Mauritius himself through the Outer Island Development Corporation (OIDC) that functions under the aegis of the Prime Minister’s Office the census of Mauritius held in July 2022 put the population of the Agalega Islands at 330.
In 2015, India and Mauritius had signed a memorandum of understanding for military cooperation. With the opening of the new airport and the jetty in Agalega, India can now enhance its presence in the Indian Ocean region. According to reports, the airstrip can handle a Boeing P-81 multi-mission aircraft while a destroyer or frigate of the Indian Navy can dock at the jetty.
India is the preferred defence partner of Mauritius for acquiring platforms/equipment, capacity building, joint patrolling and hydrological services. Indian defence officers are deputed to the Mauritian Defence Forces. An Indian Navy officer heads the Mauritian National Coast Guard, an Indian Air Force officer commands the Police Helicopter Squadron and an Indian Naval Officer heads the Mauritius Hydrography Services.
There are about 20 officers from Indian Defence Forces on deputation to the Mauritius government. India has supplied six of the seven serving helicopters, all five of the ships, all three of the aircraft, and all 10 fast interceptor boats belonging to Mauritius. India had also helped set up a coastal surveillance radar system that is currently being replaced through a Japanese grant.
“Mauritius is an important partner of India among the Indian Ocean littoral countries in the region,” Ruchita Beri, consultant at the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses and an expert on Africa, told ETV Bharat. “Over the years, India has developed a close economic, political and security partnership with Mauritius. Today’s inauguration will enhance the maritime security cooperation between India and Mauritius.”
She said that Thursday’s developments fit into India’s vision of Security and Growth for all in the Region (SAGAR) in the Indian Ocean region and Africa. “This will help in countering Chinese inroads in the region,” Beri said. “This will also boost Mauritius’s capacity to address security challenges like maritime terrorism and drug trafficking.”
She said that the opening of the airstrip and the jetty will improve India’s presence in the region and help counter instability in the Indian Ocean region. “This would help in enhancing the defence and maritime capabilities of Mauritius and contribute to stability in the region,” Beri said. K Yhome, Fellow at the Asian Confluence think tank and whose area of interest is the Indo-Pacific, pointed out that the Agalega Islands sit right in the centre of the Indian Ocean.
“Therefore, these islands provide India with a very strategic vantage point to have maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean region,” Yhome said. He said that the Indian Ocean has become an important area of strategic competition especially because of the growing Chinese presence. It is worth mentioning here that China has built a strategic port at Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The port is part of Beijing’s strategy of building a “String of Pearls” in the Indian Ocean region that also includes the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and the Gwadar port in Pakistan.
India is also a part of the Quad, also comprising the US, Japan and Australia, that is working for a free and open Indo-Pacific in the face of Chinese hegemony in the region that stretches from the eastern coast of Japan to the eastern coast of Africa. According to Yhome, India’s presence in the Agalega Islands does give New Delhi a foothold to keep track of maritime activities in the Indian Ocean and also monitor security threats whether it be induced by pirates targeting cargo ships or activities of countries that would be inimical to India’s interests.
“By expanding its presence in Mauritius, India has sent a strong message that it has the maritime capabilities to cover a large area of the Indian Ocean,” he said. It is also worth noting that Thursday’s inauguration of the projects in Mauritius comes at a time when ties between India and the Maldives are at an all-time low. New Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has adopted a pronounced pro-China and anti-India foreign policy after assuming office.
Muizzu had won last year’s presidential election on an anti-India plank. He ran an ‘India Out’ campaign in which he called for the withdrawal of some Indian military personnel deployed in his country. These personnel, numbering less than 100, are primarily involved in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief work in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. However, after assuming office, Muizzu made a formal request to India to withdraw these personnel. These military personnel are now being replaced by civilian personnel from India. It is in the light of this that Thursday’s inauguration of the airstrip and jetty at the Agalega Islands in Mauritius also assumes significance.
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Read more: Modi, Jugnauth Inaugurate Airstrip, Jetty, 6 Other India-Assisted Projects In Mauritius
