Seychelles Announces Cancellation of Key Port Agreement With India Before President’s State Visit

A week before Seychelles President Danny Faure visits India on June 25, Seychelles has announced the cancellation of an agreement with India to build a military facility on Assumption Island in the country. Seychelles and India had agreed (in principle) to a deal in 2015 to build an airstrip and a jetty for its navy on Assumption Island.

Announcing that the project was, for all intents and purposes, dead, earlier this month Seychelles president Danny Faure said Seychelles would build the facility with its own funds next year. “In next year’s budget, we will put aside funds for us to build a (Seychelles) Coast Guard facility on Assumption ourselves. It is important to ensure that we have a military post in this area,” Faure said.

Media reports from Seychelles said the government blamed the opposition leader, Indian-origin Ramkalawan, who had agreed to it after a visit to India, but later reneged on his approval. The opposition coalition holds a majority of the seats in the National Assembly, and the country's law mandates that the agreement must be ratified by this body.

The project faced public protests in Seychelles since the signing as activists argued that the country could not afford to be drawn into a regional conflict involving nuclear powers India and China.

Ralph Volcere, a political activist who has led demonstrations against the pact in Seychelles, spoke to Al Jazeera about his concerns regarding the agreement with India, “Seychelles, a small island with only 90,000 people, cannot afford to be taking sides. We are not pro-India, anti-India, pro-Chinese, anti-Chinese. We are only pro-Seychelles.” "We know the rivalry between China and India to have influence over the Indian Ocean. The Chinese also wanted to build a base here, but we turned that down. Now we can't have India station it's military personnel in our country. It doesn't matter if they are American or English or German - we don't want foreign military personnel here," he added.

In recent years, the Indian Ocean has become increasingly contested with major powers vying to establish their bases around the major shipping lanes. The region has become the focus of multiple regional and extra-regional powers. China’s foray in the Indian Ocean Region and its successful attempts to court small IOR littoral countries such as Sri Lanka and Maldives is obvious.

A Times of India report said that Foreign secretary, Vijay Gokhale, travelled to Victoria recently but was apparently unable to revive the deal, which was renegotiated and signed by his predecessor S. Jaishankar in January. By the end of the visit, it had become apparent that the deal could not be rescued.

However, a defence portal said Seychelles might be looking at a maritime security deal with France instead. This was aired by senior French defence officials in Seychelles, saying France needed a military base in Seychelles to protect French citizens in the Indian Ocean region. Earlier this year, India signed a logistics agreement with France in the Indian Ocean, which would give India access to French bases in this region.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 18, 2018 09:14 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).