Jaishankar’s first stop will be the Maldives where he will arrive on 20 February on a two-day visit. “During his visit to the Maldives, Jaishankar will call-on President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and have substantive discussions with the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Defence, Finance, Economic Development and Planning and Infrastructure,” the Indian statement said. The Indian minister will also meet Maldives parliament speaker Mohamed Nasheed besides other political leaders. “During this visit, the minister will review the entire gamut of our bilateral ties as well as the progress of ongoing bilateral projects and hold discussions on the ongoing covid situation including India’s continued assistance to the Maldives for its post-covid economic recovery,” the statement added.
India is Maldives’ fourth-largest trade partner after the UAE, China and Singapore. Indian imports from the Maldives mainly comprise scrap metals while Indian exports to the Maldives include a variety of engineering and industrial products like drugs and medicines radar apparatus, rock boulders, aggregates, cement and agriculture products like rice, spices, fruits, vegetables and poultry products.
India has been involved in a number of development projects in the Maldives including the Police Academy of Maldives in Addu, under an Indian grant of $ 33 million. The project is expected to complete by February 2021. During a meeting between Jaishankar and his Maldivian counterpart Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid in August last year, the Indian minister unveiled New Delhi’s plan to implement the Greater Male Connectivity Project through a line of credit worth $ 400 million and a grant of $ 100 million. The project aims to connect Male to Villingili, Gulhifalhu and Thilafushi islands through a series of bridges, causeways and roads. The project is seen as crucial for the proposed Gulhifalhu Port and is seen as a major catalyst for creating jobs and spurring economic activity in the post covid scenario.
To help the Maldivian economy recover from the devastation caused by covid-19, India provided financial assistance of $ 250 million to the Maldives in September 2020, through investment by the State Bank of India in Maldives Government bonds of the same value on concessional terms.
On the second leg of his two-nation tour, Jaishankar will arrive in Mauritius on 22 February. The centrepiece of the visit could be the signing of the India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) that the cabinet headed by prime minister Narendra Modi cleared on Wednesday.
According to an Indian government statement on Wednesday, the pact is a “limited agreement which will cover trade in goods, rules of origin, trade in services, technical barriers to trade (TBT), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, dispute settlement, movement of natural persons, telecom, financial services, customs procedures and cooperation in other areas.” The agreement will cover 310 export items for India including food items, beverages, electrical products, telecommunication, and a variety of other items such as seafood.
“Indian service providers will have access to around 115 sub-sectors from the 11 broad service sectors such as professional services, computer-related services, research and development, other business services, telecommunication, construction, distribution, education, environment, financial, tourism and travel-related, recreational, yoga, audio-visual services and transport services,” the statement said.
During his two day visit to Mauritius, Jaishankar will call on President Pritivirajsing Roopun and Prime Minister Mr Pravind Jagnauth. The Indian minister will also meet his counterpart the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade and Minister for Land Transport and Light Rail, Alan Ganoo.
“All aspects of our bilateral relations, ongoing implementation of various infrastructure projects being carried out by India in Mauritius” will be reviewed during the visit, the Indian foreign ministry statement said.
“Both Maldives and Mauritius are India’s key maritime neighbours in the Indian Ocean Region and occupy a special place in Prime Minister’s vision of ‘SAGAR’ (Security and Growth for All in the Region). The External Affairs Minister’s visit is testimony to the importance that India attaches to its close and friendly relations with the Maldives and Mauritius and is expected to lend further momentum to substantive cooperation and robust people to people ties between the two countries,” the Indian foreign ministry statement added.
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