Diplomatic relations opened in 1976. Almost everything else on this page happened after 2010.
Fifty years of the official relationship
What the two states have actually done for each other, in order, with the numbers attached.
A very small country with a very large friend
Seychelles has about a hundred thousand people, a very small coastguard and an enormous stretch of ocean to keep an eye on. India has a resident High Commission in Victoria and has had one since 1987. Those two sentences explain most of the relationship.
This is the ledger, in order, with the numbers attached. It is a longer ledger than most people expect and almost all of it is from the last fifteen years.
The photograph above: Radosław Botev, CC BY-SA 4.0
1976, and a ship at the parade
Seychelles became independent on 29 June 1976 and a contingent from the Indian naval ship Nilgiri marched in the Independence Day parade. Diplomatic relations were established the same year.
India opened a mission in Victoria in 1979, run at first by the High Commissioner based in Dar es Salaam. The first resident High Commissioner arrived in 1987. Seychelles opened its own resident mission in New Delhi in early 2008, which is thirty-two years after the relationship began and a fair measure of what a hundred-thousand-person foreign service can afford.
1986, and a ship that did not leave
In 1986 there was a series of attempts to overthrow President France-Albert René, led by his own defence minister. India had a frigate, the Vindhyagiri, already due in Victoria on a scheduled visit. On arrival it reported an engineering fault that required an extended stay, and the coup did not happen.
Two months later a second attempt was uncovered while René was at a Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Harare, and Rajiv Gandhi lent him an aircraft to get home early. This is forty years old, it is a matter of public record, and it is the reason the security relationship between the two countries is closer than the trade figures would suggest.
Airport transfers
A driver who watches your flight number and waits with your name on a board, at a price agreed before you fly rather than at the kerb.
See transfersThe visits
Indira Gandhi came in 1976 and again in 1981. President Venkataraman came in 1989, Vice-President Shankar Dayal Sharma in 1991, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in 2003, the external affairs and defence ministers together in July 2010, and President Pratibha Patil in 2012.
Narendra Modi's visit on 10 and 11 March 2015 was the first at prime ministerial level in thirty-four years. Four agreements were signed, a coastal surveillance radar system was inaugurated, a second Dornier aircraft was announced as a gift, and Seychellois nationals were given three months of gratis visas for travel to India.
The traffic the other way is heavier. President René visited India in 1980, 1986 and 1990. James Michel went as Vice-President in 1994, 1996 and 1999 and as President five more times. Danny Faure went twice in 2018. President Wavel Ramkalawan went in January 2018, while he was still leader of the opposition, to attend a conference of parliamentarians of Indian origin.
What India has actually paid for
The list is long and the individual items are ordinary, which is what makes it worth reading. A cash grant of 3.5 million dollars bought 71 buses and six light vehicles for the Seychelles Public Transport Corporation, and a further sixty buses were delivered between February 2023 and September 2024 under a line of credit. Ten ambulances cost 385,000 dollars. Restoring the coastal radar stations across the islands cost 4.7 million. A magistrates court building cost 3.45 million.
There is a one megawatt ground-mounted solar plant at Romainville, rooftop solar on government buildings, a 300 kilowatt rooftop scheme for households, and a solar-powered cold store on La Digue built with the International Solar Alliance. Twenty-eight community development projects were completed in the first phase and a second phase has been signed. There is an information technology centre at Mont Fleuri, opened in 2011, and an India Corner in the library at Mont Fleuri Secondary School, opened in 2024.
Then there is training. More than one per cent of the entire population of Seychelles has been through a course under India's technical and economic cooperation programme. In a country this size that is not a statistic, it is a sizeable part of the professional class.
Defence, and why the ocean matters
Piracy out of Somalia turned the western Indian Ocean into a security problem and Seychelles sits in the middle of it, a hundred thousand people responsible for an expanse of sea a large country would struggle to patrol. India has filled the gap.
Two patrol boats were given in 2005 and 2014 and a fast interceptor in 2016. Two Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft were handed over, the first in 2013 and the second in June 2018. Six coastal surveillance radar systems were installed in 2015. A fast patrol vessel followed in April 2021. The two navies have run ten editions of a joint exercise called Lamitye, the tenth of them in Victoria in March 2024, and Indian ships have come in for the National Day parade in recent years.
Trade, and why it stays small
In 2023 to 2024 India exported 76.19 million dollars of goods to Seychelles and imported 8.69 million, with total trade up almost fifteen per cent on the previous year. India's own brief gives the reason the numbers are not larger, which is the absence of a direct shipping line.
The Indian corporate presence is older than the aid. Bank of Baroda has run a branch in Victoria since 1978. Bharti Airtel has put more than twenty-five million dollars into the mobile and internet network since 1998 and is one of the two operators whose SIM you will buy at the airport. Tata supplied most of the bus fleet on Mahé and Praslin and Ashok Leyland is a newer entrant.
What it means for a traveller
Very little of it will touch you and that is rather the point. The relationship is not a tourism relationship. It is buses, radar, solar panels, a bank branch, a phone network and a training pipeline.
The two exceptions are worth knowing. Seychelles sends its patients to Chennai rather than to Europe, and the Vice-President went there in February 2017 to open a wing at the hospital that takes them. And a passport lost in the sea is a problem the High Commission in Victoria exists to solve.
Fifty years of the official relationship, in three frames.
A first President, a bus fleet and a harbour. Three things India paid part of the bill for.
Photographs, under Creative Commons: Vasilii Martynov, CC0 A.Savin, FAL Vasilii Martynov, CC0
What people ask.
When did India and Seychelles establish diplomatic relations?
In 1976, the year Seychelles became independent. A contingent from INS Nilgiri marched in the Independence Day parade on 29 June that year. India opened a mission in Victoria in 1979 and posted a resident High Commissioner in 1987.
Does India have a High Commission in Seychelles?
Yes, on the third floor of Maison Esplanade on Francis Rachel Street in Victoria, resident since 1987. Seychelles has had its own mission in New Delhi since early 2008.
What has India built in Seychelles?
Among other things, most of the bus fleet, a rebuilt coastal radar network, a magistrates court building, a one megawatt solar plant at Romainville, a solar cold store on La Digue, an information technology centre at Mont Fleuri and twenty-eight community development projects in the first phase alone.
How much do India and Seychelles trade?
In 2023 to 2024 India exported goods worth 76.19 million dollars and imported 8.69 million, a total up almost fifteen per cent on the year before. India's own brief attributes the modest scale to the absence of a direct shipping line.
Why is the Indian Navy in Seychelles?
Because a country of a hundred thousand people is responsible for an enormous stretch of the western Indian Ocean and had Somali piracy on its doorstep. India has supplied patrol boats, two Dornier surveillance aircraft and six coastal radar stations, and the two navies run a joint exercise called Lamitye.
Did Narendra Modi visit Seychelles?
Yes, on 10 and 11 March 2015, the first Indian visit at prime ministerial level in thirty-four years. Four agreements were signed and a coastal surveillance radar system was inaugurated during the visit.
Where every fact on this page comes from
- Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, India-Seychelles Bilateral Relations, brief dated 27 August 2024, source
- High Commission of India, Victoria, contact and office hours, source
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Republic of Seychelles, list of public holidays, source
- National Bureau of Statistics, Seychelles, Population and Housing Census 2022, source
- Hinduism in Seychelles, for the census religion series and the temple's consecration, source
- Seychelles microcontinent, for the rifting dates and the Deccan connection, source
- Seychellois rupee, for the 1914 currency ordinance, source
- Operation Flowers are Blooming, for the 1986 naval visit, source
- Seychelles, for the 1503 sighting and for the Seychellois account of the 1770 landing, source
- National Bureau of Statistics, Seychelles, Weekly Visitor Arrivals, bulletin VASB52 2025, released 31 December 2025, for the complete 2025 calendar year, source
- National Bureau of Statistics, Seychelles, Weekly Visitor Arrivals, bulletin VASB35 2026, released 2 September 2026, for the year so far, source
Six of these eleven are first-party. India's own foreign ministry, India's own High Commission in Victoria, the Seychelles foreign ministry and the Seychelles statistics bureau, the last of those three times over. Nothing on these pages comes from a travel site, a listing or a directory, and for most of these facts those were what search returned first. Every link was checked before publication. Figures move, so check the source rather than us if a number matters to a decision.
None of that helps you book a car
This part does. Send the dates and the island and we will come back with the car, the transfers and the days out, priced in writing.