In a landmark achievement for India’s Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), the Prime Ministers of India and Mauritius jointly inaugurated a newly upgraded 3,000-meter airstrip and the St. James deep-water jetty on Agaléga Island. This fully Indian-funded infrastructure acts as a critical strategic listening post in the Western Indian Ocean.
Key Points
- Strategic Geography: Agaléga is located over 1,000 km north of the main island of Mauritius. Its position is perfectly suited to monitor immense volumes of global shipping traffic passing through the Mozambique Channel and the Cape of Good Hope.
- Military Asset Deployment: The upgraded runway is robust enough to accommodate the Indian Navy’s premier P-8I Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and heavy-lift C-17 Globemaster transporters.
- Counter-Piracy and Security: The facility functions as a forward operating hub for joint Indo-Mauritian coast guard patrols aimed at combating piracy, illicit narcotics smuggling, and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
- SAGAR Vision Realized: The project is the ultimate manifestation of India’s ‘Security and Growth for All in the Region’ (SAGAR) doctrine, which emphasizes building the maritime security capacity of vulnerable island nations.
- Countering Chinese Hegemony: From a geopolitical perspective, this base serves as India’s direct strategic counterweight to China’s expanding naval logistics hub in Djibouti and its aggressive submarine patrols in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Source Link: https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/37654/India_Mauritius_Joint_Statement_Agalega
Q2. The strategically significant ‘Agaléga Islands’, where India has recently developed advanced maritime and aviation infrastructure, belong to the sovereign territory of:
A) Maldives
B) Seychelles
C) Mauritius
D) Madagascar
