Mauritius PM arrives on 3-day India visit

New Delhi, May 26 (IANS) Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth arrived here on Friday on a three-day state visit to India.

He was received at the airport by Minister of State for Human Resource Development Upendra Kushwaha.

This is Jugnauth’s first visit abroad since he assumed office in January this year.

On Saturday, Jugnauth will call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari and hold delegation-level talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan will also call on the visiting dignitary, who is a person of Indian origin.

Jugnauth will also address a business event organised by industry lobbies CII, Ficci and Assocham later on Friday.

His visit comes after the visit of then Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam in May 2014 for the swearing in of the NDA government at the Centre. Modi visited the Indian Ocean island nation in March 2015.

Jugnauth is being accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Collendavelloo, and the cabinet and finance secretaries of the country.

Mauritius is home to a large number of people of Indian origin who are descendants of indentured Indian workers brought in the 19th century to work in sugarcane plantations.