<p>Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday tacitly took a jibe at China’s predatory lending practices, underlining that India’s support to development projects in other countries was always based on needs and priorities as well as respect for the sovereignty of the recipient nations.</p>.<p>Modi joined Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, through video-link to jointly inaugurate the social housing units built in the Indian Ocean island nation with the financial support of $ 44.995 million from the Government of India. The Social Housing project was one of the five high-profile infrastructure projects identified for implementation under the $ 353 million Special Economic Package (SEP) New Delhi extended to the Government of Mauritius in 2016.</p>.<p>The two Prime Ministers also virtually laid the foundation stone of the two other projects in Mauritius – the construction of a state-of-the-art Civil Service College and an 8 MW Solar Photo Voltaic Farm, both taken up with financial support from India.</p>.<p>“Today, our robust development partnership has emerged as a key pillar of our close ties. Mauritius is a prime example of India's approach to development partnership which is based on the needs and priorities of our partners and respects their sovereignty,” Modi said as he virtually joined Jugnauth in the event that marked the inauguration of the social housing units.</p>.<p>The Prime Minister subtly underlined the distinction between the ways India and China supported development projects in other countries – albeit without directly referring to the communist country.</p>.<p>Beijing has been bankrolling a large number of infrastructure projects in several countries in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region as well as in Africa, as part of its Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI), thus building strategic assets across the continents. But Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious cross-continental connectivity initiative also came under criticism from around the world – for exposing the smaller participating nations to the risks of being caught in debt traps.</p>.<p>Even as its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is engaged in a stand-off with the Indian Army along its disputed boundary with India in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020, China has renewed its bid to further spread its tentacles in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. It has of late been offering new loans and economic packages to support not only development projects but also to help smaller nations to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, including India’s neighbours like Sri Lanka and the Maldives, even as they are finding it difficult to come out of the debt-trap the communist country already put them in with BRI projects.</p>.<p>India and Mauritius also inked two pacts on Thursday. The pacts included a Memorandum of Understanding for implementation of small development projects in Mauritius funded by India and a 190mn Line of Credit Agreement between the EXIM Bank of India and the SBM Mauritius.</p>.<p><strong>Watch the latest DH Videos here:</strong></p>.<p><strong>Watch the latest DH Videos here:</strong></p>
<p>Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday tacitly took a jibe at China’s predatory lending practices, underlining that India’s support to development projects in other countries was always based on needs and priorities as well as respect for the sovereignty of the recipient nations.</p>.<p>Modi joined Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, through video-link to jointly inaugurate the social housing units built in the Indian Ocean island nation with the financial support of $ 44.995 million from the Government of India. The Social Housing project was one of the five high-profile infrastructure projects identified for implementation under the $ 353 million Special Economic Package (SEP) New Delhi extended to the Government of Mauritius in 2016.</p>.<p>The two Prime Ministers also virtually laid the foundation stone of the two other projects in Mauritius – the construction of a state-of-the-art Civil Service College and an 8 MW Solar Photo Voltaic Farm, both taken up with financial support from India.</p>.<p>“Today, our robust development partnership has emerged as a key pillar of our close ties. Mauritius is a prime example of India's approach to development partnership which is based on the needs and priorities of our partners and respects their sovereignty,” Modi said as he virtually joined Jugnauth in the event that marked the inauguration of the social housing units.</p>.<p>The Prime Minister subtly underlined the distinction between the ways India and China supported development projects in other countries – albeit without directly referring to the communist country.</p>.<p>Beijing has been bankrolling a large number of infrastructure projects in several countries in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region as well as in Africa, as part of its Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI), thus building strategic assets across the continents. But Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious cross-continental connectivity initiative also came under criticism from around the world – for exposing the smaller participating nations to the risks of being caught in debt traps.</p>.<p>Even as its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is engaged in a stand-off with the Indian Army along its disputed boundary with India in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020, China has renewed its bid to further spread its tentacles in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. It has of late been offering new loans and economic packages to support not only development projects but also to help smaller nations to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, including India’s neighbours like Sri Lanka and the Maldives, even as they are finding it difficult to come out of the debt-trap the communist country already put them in with BRI projects.</p>.<p>India and Mauritius also inked two pacts on Thursday. The pacts included a Memorandum of Understanding for implementation of small development projects in Mauritius funded by India and a 190mn Line of Credit Agreement between the EXIM Bank of India and the SBM Mauritius.</p>.<p><strong>Watch the latest DH Videos here:</strong></p>.<p><strong>Watch the latest DH Videos here:</strong></p>
