Seychelles strengthens bilateral partnerships in Indian Ocean |14 October 2014

Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Paul Adam has held several bilateral meetings including with delegations from Sri Lanka, Singapore and the Royal Kingdom of Thailand.

The meetings took place on the sidelines of the 14th Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Ministers Meeting held on October 9 in Perth, Australia.

In the bilateral with Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law, K. Shanmugam, Minister Adam talked about the potential of Seychelles as an ideal platform for businesses from South East Asia looking to invest in Africa.

They also discussed areas in which the two nations could offer each other support, including potential support by Singapore in capacity building for Seychelles' financial services industry.

Minister Adam also warmly thanked Singapore for its active role within the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) and the Aims sub-region of the organisation.

He thanked Singapore for the support offered through the SidsTech programme that offers short courses to Sids (small island developing states).

He also stated that Seychelles looks forward to working with Singapore in the multilateral system towards implementing the Samoa pathway, the outcome of the recent Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States and the efforts to reach a global  agreement on climate change.

During his bilateral with the Sri Lankan Minister for External Affairs, Gamini Lakshman Peiris, Minister Adam expressed his gratitude and thanks to his Sri Lankan counterpart on the work done for the future of the partnership between Seychelles and Sri Lanka.

The two dignitaries talked about areas of cooperation between the two countries and the future of their relationship.
Minister Adam commented on how more Seychellois companies are looking at goods from Sri Lanka as a result of the added frequency of flights offered by Mihin Lanka.

Professor Peiris stated that he was happy to work with Seychelles in a number of areas and cited that the partnership between the two countries was a model for South-South cooperation.

The deputy Foreign Minister from the Royal Kingdom of Thailand, Don Pramudwunai and Minister Adam spoke at length about a number of issues in terms of tourism, maritime safety and public health.

The two ministers also talked about the importance that they saw in the Blue Economy and ways in which the two countries could learn from each other in this regard.

Both ministers would look into the possibility of air services to Thailand resuming and announced that they would seek ways to further collaborate in education.

During his stay in Perth, Minister Adam also joined other IORA delegates and chair of the IORA, Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, to visit the University of Western Australia and in particular its Marine Science Department to further examine ways in which countries of the region can build Blue Economy partnerships with Australia.