Seychelles scraps India navy base pact

INDIA HAS BEEN WORKING OVERTIME TO BOLSTER ITS NAVAL PRESENCE IN REGIONAL WATERS TO COUNTER CHINA, WHICH LAST YEAR INAUGURATED ITS FIRST MILITARY BASE IN DJIBOUTI

Seychelles government has scrapped a security cooperation agreement signed with India for setting up a naval base on Assumption island, President Danny Faure has said.

The naval base project “will not move forward” and the issue will not be discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his state visit to India later this month, Faure was quoted as saying by Seychelles News Agency.

“In next year’s budget, we will put funds for us to build a coastguard facility on Assumption ourselves. It is important for us to ensure that we have a military post in this area,” he told a news conference this month without giving reasons for the scrapping of the deal.

Seychelles and India signed a revised agreement in January to build military facilities on the remote island, but the project “quickly became controversial, with the government supporting the plan but opposition members in the National Assembly and many private citizens against it”, the news agency reported. There was no immediate reaction from the external affairs ministry.

Assumption is part of the 115island archipelago in the Indian Ocean. India has for long been involved in training and equipping the security forces of Seychelles. Under the revised agreement valid for 20 years, India was to build an airstrip and a jetty for its navy on Assumption. India was to develop the facilities free of charge and they would remain entirely under the control of Seychelles.

The first agreement on the project was signed during Modi’s visit to Seychelles in March 2015. However, there were public protests opposing the proposed Indian military presence. The opposition in Seychelles had also opposed the ratification of the agreement by Parliament.

The purported pacts were leaked online in March, adding to the furore in Seychelles. The external affairs ministry had said the project was requested by the Seychelles to secure its exclusive economic zone.