Port Louis [Mauritius], March 9 (ANI): Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Mauritius visit, Indian High Commissioner to Mauritius Anurag Srivastava highlighted the strong bonds between the two nations and stated that the upcoming meetings between the two Prime Ministers are expected to yield important agreements and announcements.

Speaking to ANI, he said, 'There would be agreements in maritime security as well as in areas like capacity building and others.'

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.

He said, 'Prime Minister Modi's state visit to Mauritius on the 11th and 12th of March is a very significant visit...Prime Minister Modi is participating as the chief guest at the National Day celebrations. 12th March holds significance to both India and Mauritius.'

Srivastava noted March 12, saying, 'For Mauritius, it is their independence day and Republic Day; for India, it is the day when Mahatma Gandhi started his Dandi march, and Mauritius specially chose this day as their day of independence.., This would be the eighth time that there would be an Indian dignitary participating as the chief guest.'

Further, Srivastava emphasized that India-Mauritius relations are built on shared history, culture, and heritage, which have evolved into a modern partnership.

'India-Mauritius relations are truly special relations. They are unlikely in most other diplomatic relations because they are based on the deep bonds between our people. These are bonds of shared history, shared culture, shared heritage and these bonds which have matured into a modern relationship,' he said.

'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,' he added.

Highlighting the 'truly special relationship', he said, '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.'

'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.

Indian High Commissioner noted that digital and financial connectivity plays a crucial role in the economic relationship and people-to-people ties between India and Mauritius.

'Digital and financial connectivity plays a very important role in the economic relationship as well as in the people-to-people ties between the two countries and we are fortunate that in Mauritius, we have the Unified Payment Interface, the UPI, as well as the rupee cards, which have been launched here and they are fairly popular. So, this provides for digital connectivity between our two countries,' he said. (ANI)