President of Seychelles Danny Antoine Rollen Faure in Ahmedabad on his first bilateral visit to India (Source: MEA/Twitter)
India will hand over a Dornier aircraft to visiting Seychelles President Danny Faure on June 26, even as uncertainty looms over New Delhi’s project to jointly develop military infrastructure on Assumption Island, officials said.
Faure, who is on a six-day visit to India starting Friday, will also hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and review the wide-ranging cooperation between the two countries, including in the fields of defence and security.
The visit comes just days after Faure announced that a joint project with New Delhi to develop a naval base on Assumption Island would not move forward.
At a press conference on June 4, Faure had said Seychelles will develop military facilities at the island on its own and that the project with India “will not move forward”.
India and Seychelles had signed an agreement on the Assumption Island project in 2015, during Modi’s visit to the country. An updated version of the original deal was finalised by the two sides earlier this year. The naval base would have given New Delhi a strategic advantage in the Indian Ocean region, where China has been trying to enhance its military presence.
During his visit, Faure will also visit Gujarat, Goa and Uttarakhand, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement, adding that the Seychelles President will meet President Ram Nath Kovind and hold delegation-level talks with Modi during his visit.
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on Faure during the visit, the statement said. During the visit, Faure will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, comprising two cabinet ministers, four secretaries of state and other senior officials.