Indian team look to boost links with Seychelles |13 May 2009

The country’s secretary of external affairs Nalin Surie said this yesterday when his group called on President James Michel and Vice-President Joseph Belmont at State House.

“These are the issues we will discuss with the government of Seychelles officials whom we will be meeting,” said Mr Surie.
“We came to try to find ways and means of strengthening the already very close partnership we have between our two countries.

“Our relations are based on history; we have been very close to each other over the years both bilaterally and in multilateral forums and we have been of help to each other. “Recently, at the request of the government of Seychelles, we helped to tackle the issue of piracy here and we were very happy to do that.”

Mr Surie’s team includes a top official from the Reserve Bank of India, and they plan to find new ways of boosting the countries’ mutual benefits.

He said Indian Vice-President Mohammad Ansari met President Michel in South Africa during the recent inauguration of President Jacob Zuma, and the two “had a good meeting there”.

“I have also brought with me the greetings of our President Pratibha Patil and those of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to the President. We are looking forward to the visit of President Michel to India later this year,” he said.

He noted India’s general elections are now being held, and the country will have a new calendar of events.
The delegation was accompanied to State House by Indian high commissioner Asit Kumar Nag.