By Sahil Pandey

Port Louis [Mauritius], March 10 (ANI): As Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on a two-day visit to Mauritius, Indian High Commissioner to Mauritius, Anurag Srivastava, called the relationship between the two countries 'truly special' and expressed that he expects agreement in areas of maritime security and capacity building.

'This is a truly special relationship and this relationship has matured into a very strong, robust and multifaceted partnership. This partnership spans areas like maritime security cooperation, development partnership, capacity building, health and education and various other areas,' Srivastava told ANI.

'In the meetings between the two Prime Ministers, we anticipate that there will be very important agreements and announcements that will be made following these meetings. It is expected that there would be agreements in the areas of maritime security in order to take forward a maritime security partnership, as well as in areas like capacity building and others,' he added.

Notably, PM Modi will embark on a state visit to Mauritius on March 11-12 at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Naveen Chandra Ramgoolam. On March 12, he will attend the National Day celebrations of Mauritius as the chief guest.

The Indian envoy further said that the relationship between India and Mauritius has a lot of elements of capacity building, cooperation in health and education and very strong trade and investment ties.

Talking further about the India- Mauritius bond, the Indian envoy mentioned, 'These are bonds of shared history, shared culture, shared heritage and these bonds which have matured into a modern relationship. This relationship also has a lot of elements of capacity building, cooperation of health and education, cooperation of a very strong trade and investment ties and this visit is expected to take forward this relationship in all its various aspects and dimensions.'

When asked about the preparation for PM Modi visit, Indian Envoy said, 'We have organized a community reception where we expect a very large number of people to be coming...For the national day celebrations, we have an Indian marching contingent. We have an Indian naval ship which will be coming to Mauritius, especially on this occasion, and in the ceremony itself, we have an Akash Ganga skydiving team which will be participating.' (ANI)