Mauritius PM Navin Ramgoolam begins India visit today; key highlights here

Mauritius Prime Minister Dr. Navin Ramgoolam is set to begin his week-long visit to India today (September 9). The visit, which will run until September 16, will cover Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mumbai, and Tirupati.

Mauritius PM Ramgoolam is expected to visit Varanasi from September 10–12, where he will meet PM Modi on September 11, attend the Ganga Aarti, visit Kashi Vishwanath Temple on September 12, and then leave for Ayodhya. In Mumbai, Ramgoolam is scheduled to attend a business event.

This will be the prime minister's first overseas bilateral visit in his present term, the ministry of external affairs said in a statement. This meeting is also expected to be along the lines of the commitments and outcomes discussed in March earlier this year.

PM Modi's March visit to Mauritius

In March PM Modi visited Mauritius for the latter’s National Day celebrations. During his two-day visit, PM Modi held bilateral meetings with PM Ramgoolam and President Dharam Gokhool. During his visit, India also announced to extend support for a new Parliament building and Phase-II of High Impact Community Development Projects.

Some other key announcements from the March visit included inauguration of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Public Service and Innovation, Mauritius Area Health Centre at Cap Malheureux, and 20 HICDP projects in Mauritius; agreement on formulating RBI–Bank of Mauritius framework to promote local currency trade (INR/MUR); credit facility agreement between Mauritius and State Bank of India (SBI). Further, a slew of MoUs were signed to foster cooperation in MSMEs, foreign service training, public service and governance, ocean information services, and financial crime enforcement sectors.

India-Mauritius bilateral relations

Mauritius PM Ramgoolam last visited India in May 2014. The Prime Minister was the only non-SAARC leader invited to attend the swearing-in ceremony back then. The island nation has shared longstanding ties with India since independence. Mauritius was among the first countries with which independent India established diplomatic relations in 1948, much before Mauritius itself gained independence. The country is one among the early adopters of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI.)