Port Louis: Mauritius has denied a report that it’s allowed India to create a military base on the remote island of Agalega, with a government official telling AFP that no such agreement exists between the 2 nations.
Earlier in the week , news broadcaster Al Jazeera reported on the development of an airstrip and two jetties to deal with an Indian military base on Agalega, located about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) north of the archipelago’s main island.
But on Wednesday, the Mauritian government denied any plans to permit a facility on Agalega, home to about 300 people.
“There is not any agreement between Mauritius and India for the creation of a military base in Agalega,” Ken Arian, a communications adviser to Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, told AFP.
Arian said that although work was under way on two projects agreed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2015 visit to Mauritius — a three-kilometre (1.8-mile) air strip and a jetty — they might not be used for military purposes.
The report raised fears of a repeat of the 1965 decision by Britain to separate the Chagos Islands from Mauritius and found out a joint military base with the us on Diego Garcia, the most important of the isles.
The decades-old move has sparked protests by Chagossians, who accuse Britain of completing an “illegal occupation” and barring them from their homeland.
Britain insists the islands belong to London and has renewed a lease agreement with the us to use Diego Garcia until 2036.
Diego Garcia played a strategic role during the conflict , then as an airbase, including during the war in Afghanistan.
