She was met at Seychelles International Airport by foreign affairs principal secretary Barry Faure; ambassador/head of the European Commission to Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros Alessandro Mariani; French ambassador Philippe Delacroix; British high commissioner Matthew Forbes; and Seychelles’ ambassador to the EU Vivienne Fock-Tave.

During her two-day stay, she will meet political leaders and civil society representatives, and visit a patrol ship and plane taking part in the EU’s counter-piracy operation Atalanta.

Hours after her arrival yesterday, Baroness Ashton was hosted to a reception at State House.
 
Today she will call on President James Michel at State House, after which she will visit the EU Atalanta maritime surveillance aircraft at the airport and a Swedish naval vessel, the Carlskrone, docked in Port Victoria.

In the afternoon, Baroness Ashton will take part in a regional ministerial meeting to discuss a regional approach to the fight against piracy.

She is expected to leave the country this evening.

In her first mission to Africa, a key strategic partner for the EU, Baroness Ashton has also been visiting Tanzania and Kenya, where she has met the United Nations’ special representative for Somalia and key representatives of Somalia’s transitional federal government to discuss the issue of piracy in the region.

While in Seychelles, she is continuing to explore options for effective and sustainable solutions to the question.

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