India and Seychelles sign agreement on Maritime Cooperation

February 22, 2023

The Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region of India and the RCOC (Regional Coordination Operations Centre) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on maritime cooperation. India has a military base on the Assumption Island of Seychelles. It was built in 1990 and was extended in 2016. The country is important for India for its geopolitical location.

About the MoU

According to the MoU, the countries will work together and improve maritime safety in the Indian Ocean Region. The safety provisions will be based on the SAGAR initiative – Security and Growth for All in the Region. With this, they will be able to correlate better and can share information in a more compressed way.

IFC-IOR

The IFC-IOR hosts the ILO – International Liaison Officers meet. 12 countries participate and are the US, UK, Singapore, Seychelles, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, France, Italy, Australia, and Japan.

Background

It is essential for India to sign this agreement with Seychelles to learn about the maritime safety measures being implemented in this region. The Western Indian Ocean is governed by the “Maritime Security architecture”. This architecture is implemented by Indian Ocean Commission. The IOC is supported by Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre, RCOC, and other countries like Djibouti, Comoros, Kenya, Mauritius, France, Seychelles, and Madagascar. India has no maritime agreements related to this part of the Indian Ocean with these countries except Seychelles. Even if it does, those agreements do not talk about sharing information! Thus, it is essential to sign the MoU with the country.
Note: India is only an observer at the Indian Ocean Commission; not a member.

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