At the invitation of Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, President of India, His Excellency Mr. James Alix Michel, President of the Republic of Seychelles, paid a State Visit to India from 1-3 June 2010. His delegation included Ambassador Barry Faure, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other senior officials and a business delegation.

President Michel met the President of India who also hosted a banquet in his honour. He also met Hon'ble Shri Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India. President Michel held official discussions with Hon'ble Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, during which both sides were accompanied by senior delegation members.

The Leader of Opposition, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, called on the visiting dignitary.

The delegation level talks, led by Prime Minister, were held in a cordial atmosphere reflecting the close and friendly relationship between the two countries. Both sides expressed happiness at the special relationship and friendship that has developed between the two countries which is leading to an even greater mutually beneficial partnership. A wide range of issues of bilateral cooperation and future areas for partnership were discussed. These included economic cooperation, capacity building, defence and security cooperation, enhancing trade and investment, cooperation in the fight against piracy and the like.

India has offered a Line of Credit of US$ 10 million to Seychelles. In order to assist Seychelles to develop self-sustaining and revenue generating projects, based on the request from Seychelles side, the Government of India has agreed to extend this LOC as a two-step loan to the Development Bank of Seychelles.

Seychelles is currently going through economic reforms aimed at recovery of its economy with the help of IMF. Seychelles had requested Government of India to reschedule the repayment terms of the US$ 8 million line of credit, offered in 2007, in terms of the Paris Club formulations. The Indian side agreed to this request to reschedule the repayment as per Paris Club norms.

It was agreed that India will continue its commitment in building of Seychelles's infrastructure. It was also agreed that Indian side will consider extending all assistance in the areas identified during the 7th India-Seychelles Joint Commission Meeting held in Mahe in May 2010.

India will continue to assist Seychelles in capacity building efforts thorugh short and medium term training courses through the ITEC programe as also thrugh long-term scholarships.

Both sides agreed that is large potential for increasing the volume of bilateral trade as well as enhancing Indian investments in Seychelles, particularly in the sectors of tourism, fishing, financial sector, fibre optic cables etc. The Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) was signed during the visit. This is aimed at giving a necessary boost to Indian investment in Seychelles.

Both sides agreed that climate change issues affect both countries and action needed to be taken by global community to reduce its impact.

A business delegation from Seychelles accompanied the Seychelles President. They interacted with their Indian counterparts during a business event organized by FICCI together with CII and ASSOCHAM, during which presentations were made on investment opportunities in Seychelles.

The Seychelles President visited The Energy Research Institute (TERI) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on June 3, 2010.

New Delhi