Planned Indian military base stirs Seychelles controversy

Some fear an influx of Indian workers, while others consider a foreign power building a military base an affront to sovereignty and national pride

VICTORIA: A plan for India to build a military base on an outlying Seychelles island has won favour among the archipelago nation’s politicians, but some hostility from its people.

The base on Assumption Island is to be funded by India and shared by the two countries’ militaries.

The deal was struck in principle in 2015 during a visit to the Seychelles by India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, but progress since has been slow.

The government of the Seychelles, based in Victoria on Mahe Island 1,135 km northeast of Assumption, says the base will help coastguards to patrol its 1.3 million square kilometre (500,000 square mile) exclusive economic zone for illegal fishing, drug trafficking and piracy. Currently, the remote coral island has a tin shack post office, an air strip and almost no people, it is less than seven kilometres long, has a high point just 30 metres (100 feet) above sea level and is covered in bird excrement.

But its location lends it strategic importance for monitoring shipping in the Mozambique Channel.

India plans to invest $550 million (446 million euros) in building the base to help it ensure the safety of its vessels in the southern Indian Ocean.

It also says the base will be a resource for other shipping nations.

“Assumption is very close to the Mozambique Channel where much of the international trade is transiting, and not just for India but for other countries as well, and our interest is that our trading vessels are safe,” said India’s Ambassador in Victoria, Ausaf Sayeed. India has had a military cooperation agreement with the Seychelles since 2003 and the deal would give it use of the Assumption base for up to 30 years. Seeking to allay fears the government has made available to the public some details of the classified defence agreement.

Nevertheless, the project remains controversial with small weekly demonstrations in the capital.

Indian presence in the Seychelles is a sensitive matter. Some fear an influx of Indian workers who, they say, might come to dominate the economy, while others consider a foreign power building a military base an affront to sovereignty and national pride.

“The Seychelles can make its own military base, I am against any foreign military presence!” said Guilmert Corgat, a businessman in Victoria who attended a town hall meeting on the plan in late February.