Your Excellency, Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius,
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media,

It is an honour for me to welcome Prime Minister Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam on a State Visit to India. He is a special friend of India and a distinguished member of the Indian diaspora.

Prime Minister Dr. Ramgoolam and I have completed very fruitful and wide-ranging discussions aimed at further expanding and strengthening the India-Mauritius partnership.

Relations between India and Mauritius are rooted in strong historical and cultural links. However, over the years, our relations have transformed into a modern, dynamic, comprehensive and mutually beneficial partnership that encompasses active cooperation in a wide spectrum of spheres.

We have agreed that the next Meeting of the India-Mauritius Joint Commission on Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation will be held later this year to identify new measures to promote cooperation in key areas. 
 
India has been a long-standing development partner of Mauritius. I was happy to inform the Prime Minister that the Government of India will provide a new economic package to Mauritius consisting of a Line of Credit of 250 million US dollars and a grant of 20 million US dollars. 

A part of this grant will be used to establish a hybrid planetarium at the Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre in Mauritius.

We reviewed the status of implementation of the India-Mauritius Double Taxation Avoidance Convention. Both India and Mauritius have an interest in ensuring that there is no misuse of the Convention. We are happy that the Joint Working Group on this Convention has resumed its work and held a meeting recently in Port Louis in December 2011. We have directed our officials to continue their work towards finding a mutually acceptable and satisfactory solution to the issues that concern us at the earliest. 

The Memorandums of Understanding signed today in the areas of Science & Technology and Education will enable institutionalized cooperation in human resource development.

I have invited Mauritius to make the best use of the opportunities available under the initiatives launched by us as part of the India-Africa Forum Summit process.

Diaspora links have provided the foundation for our bilateral relations. The Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the field of Sports and Youth Affairs will help in strengthening these contacts, particularly amongst the youth.

The Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Textiles will facilitate cooperation with regard to raw materials, skill development and increasing  production capabilities.

Defence and security cooperation is one of the key pillars of our relationship. We both have common security interests. India will continue to support Mauritius in ensuring the security and sovereignty of its land and maritime territory.

We have agreed to strengthen our cooperation to address the growing menace of piracy which has emerged as a major security and developmental challenge for all littoral states of the Indian Ocean. A stable and peaceful Indian Ocean is an objective we both share.

In this context, we have agreed that India - as current chair of the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation and Mauritius - as the host for its Secretariat – should work together to reinvigorate this initiative.

We have had a complete meeting of minds on key regional and global issues. We deeply appreciate Mauritius' consistent and strong support for India's candidature as a permanent member of an expanded United Nations Security Council.

The visit of Prime Minister Dr. Ramgoolam has imparted a fresh impetus to our efforts to further strengthen our excellent bilateral relations.

I invite Prime Minister Dr. Ramgoolam to make his remarks.