A leading Arab media organization claimed on Tuesday that India is believed to be building a naval facility on the remote Mauritian island of Agalega in the south-western Indian Ocean. It said that the satellite imagery, financial data, and on-the-ground evidence were collected by it.
In a report, Qatar-based Al Jazeera media channel claimed that the military experts who had analyzed and studied the evidence collected by its Investigative Unit say an airstrip is under construction in Agalega, which will probably be used for maritime patrol missions by the Indian Navy.
Agalega is about 12 Km long and 1.5 Km wide island, located approximately 1100 Km from Mauritius’ main island, and inhabits about 300 people.
“It’s an intelligence facility for India to stage air and naval presence in order to increase surveillance in the wider southwest Indian Ocean and Mozambique channel,” Abhishek Mishra, associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) think-tank in New Delhi, was quoted as saying by the news channel.
There was no immediate response from the Indian Navy regarding the Al Jazeera report. Media reports about the military base first came in 2018 but both Mauritius and India have denied that the construction project is for military purposes and say that the infrastructure is only to benefit the local people living there, the channel said.
