Indian Ambassador Malay Mishra: ‘India and Mauritius would come to a common position on the Chagos’

Ambassador Malay Mishra served as a career diplomat for 36 years and served in Mauritius in the 80s. He is superannuated from the Indian Foreign Service on 31 July 2015 as India’s Ambassador and Plenipotentiary to Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with residence in Budapest. He recently visited Mauritius and News on Sunday seized the opportunity to put to him a few questions on India’s policy abroad and the situation in the Indian Ocean.

Ambassador Mishra insists during the interview that what he says reflects only his personal views and not the policy position of the Government of India.

When he started his Prime Ministership, Narendra Modi pushed forward a new diplomatic project- Look East Policy. How far has he been successful in this venture?

The ‘Act East Policy’ was a continuity of former PM Narasimha Rao’s ‘Look East’ Policy which was further refined and activated by successive Prime Ministers. However, given that the entire South East Asian region has lost its growth momentum substantially following the global recession of 2007-08 which has deeply affected small export-dependent economies of the region, it has been difficult for India to find a concrete foot though several initiatives have been taken, with particular focus on ASEAN, EAS and their auxiliary bodies. India is now moving in its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy more actively than ever before, and that in the long run will also boost our engagement in the Eastern flank.

With the end of piracy in the Indian Ocean, India seems to feel more secure. What are the gains harvested in this connection? China has taken this opportunity to secure a port attachment in the Seychelles and India is showing no sign of concrete presence in the Indian Ocean even though Mauritius has agreed to some kind of presence in Agalega. Why is India not taking this opportunity to consolidate its position on the islet?

Piracy had been a menace in the Indian Ocean, so much so that, besides India many countries were acting unilaterally and individually so long. However, once the strategy was to adopt better coordination and plan things jointly, it was not too long before the pirate boats disappeared from the Indian Ocean. This being a vital sea link for movement of hydro-carbons, besides being a vital communication link among the 40 odd riparian states of the Gulf and Indian Ocean, it was in the fitness of things to act jointly sharing resources, intelligence and firepower. China has its own strategy in the Indian Ocean while India has hers. PM Modi’s 3-island visit in March 2015 to Seychelles and Sri Lanka besides Mauritius had been a major success from the Indian point of view. It was important for us to reinforce our toehold in the Ocean for trade and development and keeping in the spirit of IORA of which India has been a founding member. I have no doubt that our policy will bear fruit in an incremental manner over a period of time.

The International Tribunal has two weeks ago given a favourable judgment to the Philippines on sovereignty over the China Sea. Do you think China will abide by the decision?

As I said above, both our countries follow different strategies and policies for development. India believes in empowering the African people given our age old ties which found significant expression during Gandhiji’s 21-year stay in South Africa. Today India has invested close to 40 billion US$ in the African continent in manpower development, education, health care, infrastructure development, cyber connectivity, all those areas which will make Africa strong and empowered in the future.

How far the modification of the DTA signed between Mauritius and India will impact on bilateral relations? You think there is need for a new economic and financial agreement on FDI between the two countries?

As you know, the DTAA signed between India and Mauritius is one of the many such agreements India has signed with friendly countries. However, given that certain loopholes in the Agreement were being exploited by certain unscrupulous investors, including many Indians to go back to invest in India through the Mauritius route made it liable to be reviewed. This had been an ongoing exercise for several years now which was finally brought to fruition. As of now, we have to watch how the amended version of DTAA works, and what the possible flip sides are. This may in the short term lead to some reduction in FDI and Portfolio investments but in the medium term it could straighten up and be a more stable flow of bonafide investible funds into India. Some other countries such as Singapore are also coming up for review for the same reason as I mentioned above, just to say that the measure was not Mauritius-specific.

Will India give support to Mauritius at the United Nations during the next General Assembly when Sir Anerood Jugnauth will claim sovereignty over the Chagos?

India has stayed firm on her position that the whole of Indian Ocean is a zone of peace and tranquillity, a UN Declaration which goes back to 1971. Obviously any kind of destabilisation caused directly or indirectly by extraneous powers would come to India’s adverse attention. But having said that, it is for both India and Mauritius to start concretely coordinating on the matter from now if not done already. I’m sure both countries would come to a common position, which could be reflected in India’s stand on the Chagos when it comes up for discussion at the UNGA. Besides coordination among the two Foreign Ministries, our Permanent Representatives should also be coordinating in the matter in New York on a regular basis. India shares age-old historical, cultural and heritage ties with Mauritius and it’s in this spirit that our bilateral relations have consistently grown over time, and consolidated in an important way during Mr Modi’s visit to Mauritius last year when he was the Chief Guest at your Independence Day Celebrations.