Seychelles is ‘key strategic partner’ of India, says PM Modi

New Delhi, Aug. 26 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday expressed gratitude to Seychelles President James Alix Michel for supporting India’s candidature for a permanent seat in the United Nation’s Security Council (UNSC) and described the island nation as a ‘key strategic partner’ of India.

“We greatly appreciate Seychelles’ support for India’s candidature for permanent membership of an expanded United Nations Security Council,” Prime Minister Modi said in his joint statement here.

“President Michel has been instrumental for the progress in our relationship. We value this greatly because Seychelles is a key strategic partner for India. Just as the range of our interests are broad so are the foundations of our relationship deep. Our shared values include ties of kinship, unmatched mutual respect and trust, and a partnership of equality. I am pleased that we are making good progress on the decisions from my very productive visit in March,” he added.

The Prime Minister further said that President Michel’s visit has imparted ‘additional momentum’ to India-Seychelles relations.

“President Michel’s visit has imparted additional momentum to our relations. We have excellent security cooperation, especially for maritime security in the Indian Ocean region,” Prime Minister Modi said.

“We are honoured to be partner in providing aircraft naval vessels to Seychelles for strengthening surveillance capacity… I announce that we will provide another Dornier maritime patrol plane to Seychelles,” he added.

President Michel, who arrived in the national capital yesterday for a three-day official visit, was accorded a Guard of Honour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan today.

The Seychelles President was accompanied by a high-level delegation, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Transport Joel Morgan and Minister of Finance, Trade and Blue Economy Jean-Paul Adam among others. (ANI)