Africa-Press – Mauritius. U. S. Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Richard Rahul Verma, on a tight trip to consolidate US relations with various Indian Ocean Island states, had an intense two-day stop-over in Mauritius this week.
Besides participating with the US ambassador Henry Jardine in the laying of the foundation stone of the new US Embassy complex in Bagatelle, the distinguished official had a well-packed series of meetings here: namely, a courtesy call on the President, working meeting with the PM Pravind Jugnauth on bilateral issues, a meeting with the Leader and other key members of the Opposition.
The Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources also met the press in Mauritius where he placed his visit in the context of «the strong US-Mauritius relationship, and future opportunities for partnership and cooperation between our two countries.
» He underlined that «this relationship is built upon shared values and democratic principles.
It may be useful to recall here the more general context of this series of meetings which follows the Mauritian PM couple meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House in December last.
Geopolitics should have hovered over both that visit and in the background to the important Richard Verma stop-over as talks with the UK towards completing the decolonisation process of Mauritius by handing over full sovereignty over Diego Garcia, host to the Anglo-American military base, were targeted to be approaching a conclusion during 2023.
Richard Verma is an Indian-origin US high official who was appointed as Obama’s distinguished Ambassador to India in 2014, and few could be more conversant with that emerging superpower’s concerns, those relating to general maritime security in the Indo-Pacific area and the strategic considerations underlying India, US, Australia and Japan in the Quad partnership to contain China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific (military pressures on Taiwan, naval claims on South China Sea and various naval bases around the African coast).
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