India, Mauritius extend maritime pact by 5 yrs

In an effort to further strengthen relations with the littoral States in strategically-important Indian Ocean, India has renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mauritius in the field of hydrographic for the next five years to enable the country to improve its capabilities in this field. India is already assisting Mauritius in survey of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) since 2013.

The MOU was signed during the ninth Hydrographic Committee meeting between the two countries in Mauritius earlier this week. The Indian delegation was led by Chief Hydrographer Vice Admiral S K Jha who also reviewed various ongoing hydrographic projects there.Mauritius appreciated work being undertaken by the Indian Naval Hydrographic team based at Mauritius since 2013 and the extensive survey carried out by Indian Naval hydrography ships, officials said here on Friday adding the MOU will pave way for continued cooperation between the two countries.

India and Mauritius have shared strong maritime bonds over the years with myriad areas of mutual cooperation. Hydrography has emerged as one of the strongest pillars of this bilateral engagement and has been a significant source of capacity and capability building for Mauritius. While, the Indian Navy is rendering hydrographic assistance to Mauritius since the 1990s, it is through a landmark MoU inked in 2005 that the two countries formalized the mechanism of hydrographic cooperation which included periodic survey by Indian Naval ships to chart the vast Mauritian EEZ.

In 2005, the two countries have periodically reviewed the progress and charted a future course of action through conduct of a Joint Indo - Mauritian committee meeting on hydrography, hosted alternately by the two Governments.Indian Navy also conducts regular anti-piracy and anti-terrorism patrols near the Mauritius waters besides conducting periodic maritime reconnaissance.  India also trains naval personnel of Mauritius.