During PM Modi’s visit, India & Seychelles ink pact for extradition, 8 others

India and Seychelles unveiled 19 outcomes following high-level talks between the two governments, marking a significant deepening of the bilateral relationsh...

What Happened

India and Seychelles unveiled 19 outcomes following high-level talks between the two governments, marking a significant deepening of the bilateral relationship during an official state visit.
The outcomes included the signing of an extradition treaty — a first between the two nations — along with eight other agreements spanning space cooperation, digital payments, healthcare, agriculture, diplomatic training, and seafarer certification.
An umbrella Line of Credit agreement worth ₹1,250 crore was concluded through the Export-Import Bank of India to support priority development projects in Seychelles.
India gifted an indigenously built fast patrol vessel, ten utility vehicles, and five Laser Radial class boats to the Seychelles Defence Force, and completed the refit of the PS Zoroaster for the Seychelles Coast Guard.
An agreement was signed for preliminary preparations for a new Seychelles National Hospital, and an arrangement under the Jan Aushadhi scheme was concluded to supply affordable Indian medicines through HLL Lifecare Ltd.

Static Topic Bridges

Extradition Law in India

Extradition is the formal legal process by which one state surrenders a person accused or convicted of a crime to another state for prosecution or punishment. In India, the framework is governed by the Extradition Act, 1962, which establishes comprehensive procedures for both requesting extradition from, and surrendering persons to, foreign countries. The Act defines an "extradition treaty" under Section 2(d) as any treaty, agreement, or arrangement made by India with a foreign state relating to the extradition of fugitive criminals.

India has extradition treaties with approximately 48 countries and extradition arrangements with 12 others; Seychelles now becomes part of this treaty network.
Three foundational principles govern extradition: Double Criminality (the act must be an offence in both states), Principle of Specialty (extradited person may only be prosecuted for the specific crime cited), and Political Exception (extradition may be refused if the request is politically motivated).
Extradition may also be refused on grounds such as prior acquittal or punishment, lapse of time (statute of limitations), or if the offence is of a military nature.
Under Section 3(4), the Central Government may treat multilateral conventions (to which both India and the requesting state are parties) as extradition treaties for offences specified therein — allowing extradition even without a bilateral treaty in certain cases.
The executive power to enter into extradition treaties flows from Article 73 of the Constitution (extent of executive power of the Union), while Article 253 enables Parliament to legislate for implementing international agreements, overriding the normal federal distribution of powers.

Connection to this news: The newly signed India-Seychelles extradition treaty creates a formal legal channel for the return of fugitives between the two countries, strengthening law-enforcement cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.

MAHASAGAR — India's Maritime Doctrine

MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) is India's updated maritime vision doctrine, announced in March 2025. It is the successor to SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region), which was articulated in March 2015. While SAGAR positioned India as a "net security provider" primarily within the Indian Ocean Region, MAHASAGAR broadens this vision geographically (to the wider Indo-Pacific and Global South) and substantively — integrating economic connectivity, technological cooperation, sustainable development, and capacity-building alongside traditional maritime security.

SAGAR (2015): Focused on Indian Ocean littoral states; India as preferred security partner; emphasis on coastal surveillance, information sharing, and infrastructure.
MAHASAGAR (2025): Expands to Indo-Pacific and Global South; adds digital infrastructure, blue economy, renewable energy, and technology partnership as pillars.
One of the first operational exercises under MAHASAGAR was the Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement (AIKEYME) exercise in April 2025, involving navies from ten African countries.
Small island states in the Indian Ocean — Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, Sri Lanka — are central to this framework as strategic nodes for maritime domain awareness.
India has systematically equipped Seychelles with coastal surveillance radar systems, Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft (donated 2018), and patrol vessels (PS Topaz in 2005, PS Constant in 2014) as part of this long-term strategic posture.

Connection to this news: The 19 outcomes announced during the visit — spanning defence, digital payments, space, healthcare, and infrastructure — are a direct expression of the MAHASAGAR framework, which goes beyond security to encompass comprehensive development partnerships with Indian Ocean island states.

UPI's International Expansion as Digital Public Infrastructure

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a real-time payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Launched in 2016, UPI has become the world's largest real-time payments platform by transaction volume. The RBI's Payments Vision 2025 (2022) and subsequent Payments Vision 2028 (March 2026) have charted a roadmap for UPI's global expansion as a component of India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) diplomacy.

As of early 2026, UPI is operational in over eight countries across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, with over 23 MoUs signed for DPI cooperation.
The first operational cross-border UPI corridor was the UPI-PayNow linkage with Singapore, jointly enabled by RBI and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The NPCI proposed a rule capping any single third-party UPI app at 30% of total transaction volume (market concentration cap), with a compliance deadline of December 2026.
India has used UPI deployment as a tool of economic diplomacy, especially with Global South nations — embedding India's payment stack into partner countries' financial ecosystems.

Connection to this news: The agreement to advance UPI-based digital payments in Seychelles is part of a broader pattern of India exporting its DPI stack — including UPI, Aadhaar-linked systems, and CoWIN-type platforms — to partner nations, reinforcing economic interdependence alongside security ties.

India's Line of Credit (LoC) as a Development Diplomacy Tool

A Line of Credit (LoC) is a concessional loan extended by a government (through its export credit agency) to a foreign country, typically tied to the procurement of goods and services from the lending country. India's development finance arm in this space is the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank), which disburses LoCs on behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs under the Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme (IDEAS). LoCs are a core instrument of India's development diplomacy, particularly with Africa, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific.

The India-Seychelles umbrella LoC concluded in June 2026 is worth ₹1,250 crore (~USD 150 million at prevailing rates), to be used for priority development projects.
India has extended over USD 30 billion in LoCs globally across approximately 65 countries — one of the largest development financing footprints among emerging economies.
Unlike China's infrastructure lending (often criticized for opacity and sovereign debt risks), India's LoCs are typically tied to Indian goods/services procurement and are structured as concessional rather than commercial loans.
EXIM Bank LoCs serve dual purposes: expanding export markets for Indian industry and building strategic partnerships with recipient countries.

Connection to this news: The ₹1,250 crore LoC to Seychelles enables India to anchor development partnerships in a strategically significant Indian Ocean island state, consistent with the MAHASAGAR doctrine's emphasis on combining security with economic development.

Key Facts & Data

Total number of outcomes announced during India-Seychelles talks: 19
India-Seychelles LoC amount: ₹1,250 crore (through EXIM Bank)
India's total extradition treaties globally: approximately 48 countries (with arrangements with 12 more)
SAGAR doctrine year: 2015; MAHASAGAR doctrine year: 2025
UPI operational in 8+ countries as of early 2026; 23+ MoUs signed for DPI cooperation
The Extradition Act governing India's legal framework: 1962
Constitutional article for executive power to enter treaties: Article 73; for legislative implementation: Article 253
Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, strategically located on key shipping lanes
India gifted: one fast patrol vessel, ten utility vehicles, and five Laser Radial class boats to Seychelles Defence Force in this visit
Jan Aushadhi scheme partner for Seychelles healthcare: HLL Lifecare Ltd