• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a two-day state visit to Mauritius beginning March 11 to grace the island nation’s national day celebrations as the chief guest.

• PM Modi is travelling to Mauritius at the invitation of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam.

• The national day celebrations of Mauritius will be on March 12.

• A number of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) will be exchanged between the two sides during the visit.

• The visit will reaffirm the strong and enduring bond between India and Mauritius and reinforce the shared commitment of both countries to enhance the bilateral relationship across all sectors.

• A contingent of Indian defence forces will also participate in the celebrations along with a ship from the Indian Navy.

• Modi last visited Mauritius in 2015.

India-Mauritius relations

• Mauritius is a former British and French colony that gained independence from British rule in 1968.

• India has close, long-standing relations with Mauritius, an island nation in the Western Indian Ocean, owing to historic, demographic and cultural reasons. 

• A key reason for the special ties is the fact that Indian origin people comprise nearly 70 per cent of the island’s population of 1.2 million.

• Diplomatic relations between India and Mauritius were established in 1948, even before the independence of Mauritius.

• India and Mauritius share a unique relationship that is strategic, reliable and time-tested on one hand, and is based on historical, cultural and ties of kinship on the other. 

• The relationship has been further strengthened by the close engagement between the leadership and strong people to people ties. India’s engagement with Mauritius has evolved into a multi-faceted relationship encompassing cooperation in key priority areas including people oriented development partnership, defence and maritime cooperation, trade & commercial ties, capacity building through scholarships and ITEC programmes, etc.

• India has traditionally been the ‘first responder’ for Mauritius in times of crisis, including during the recent COVID-19 and Wakashio oil-spill crises. 

• Mauritius is one of India’s key maritime neighbours in the Indian Ocean Region and occupies a special place in PM Modi’s vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region).

• In February 2021, the two countries signed a landmark Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Partnership Agreement (CECPA).

• The island nation is also part of India’s security grid including Coastal Surveillance Radar (CSR) station of Indian Navy’s National Command Control Communication Intelligence network (NC3I Network).

• As part of Mission SAGAR, medical assistance teams were deployed to Mauritius to help in dealing with the COVID-19 emergency. 

• Since 2005, India has been among the largest trading partners of Mauritius. The bilateral trade during 2022-23 was $554.19 million.

• India’s exports to Mauritius comprises largely petroleum products. Other main items of India’s exports to Mauritius are pharmaceuticals, cereals, cotton, shrimps and prawns. The island nation’s exports to New Delhi include vanilla, medical devices, needles, aluminium alloys, scrap paper, refined copper, etc.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store