India, Mauritius renew hydrographic cooperation for next 5 years

NEW DELHI: India and Mauritius have renewed the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on hydrographic cooperation for the next five years, which would pave the way for continued ties between the two countries.

The MoU was renewed during the IXth Hydrographic Committee meeting held at Mauritius from June 29 to July 1, which also reviewed various ongoing hydrographic projects, an official release said today.

The MoU would pave way for continued cooperation between the two countries and assist Mauritius in further consolidating its hydrographic organisation, it said.

While the Indian Navy has been rendering hydrographic assistance to Mauritius since the 1990s, it is through an MoU signed in 2005 that the two countries formalised the mechanism of hydrographic cooperation.

The area of cooperation under the agreement include periodic survey by Indian Naval ships to chart the vast Mauritian Exclusive Economic Zone ( EEZ) and various capacity building measures including setting up of a Mauritian hydrographic unit and skill development of Mauritian hydrographers.

At the three-day meet, the Indian delegation was headed by Vice Admiral S K Jha, Chief Hydrographer to the Government of India, the release said.

In addition to reviewing various ongoing hydrographic projects, the Admiral also interacted with the senior government functionaries including the President, Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers among others to apprise them of the strong bilateral cooperation and also to share their views on developing Mauritius as an ocean-based economy, it said.

According to the release, Mauritius was particularly appreciative of the work being undertaken by the Indian Naval Hydrographic team based at Mauritius since 2013 and the extensive survey being undertaken by Indian Naval hydrography ships.

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, the release said.

Since 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.