Mauritius: Small Island, Global Outlook

For His Excellency Dr Rajeshwar Jeetah, taking up his post as Mauritius’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom represents something of a homecoming.

He first arrived in Britain in 1983 as a young student, exchanging the warmth of Mauritius for a very different life in Manchester. He remembers the cold – and arriving armed with a large bag of spices and pickles. Settling in was not entirely straightforward. “I didn’t know anyone, he recalls. “I spoke English, but with a strong French accent.” Resourceful even then, High Commissioner Jeetah found a job in the student pub, partly as a way of meeting people and settling into life in Britain. He stayed for five years. Food proved another effective means of bridging cultures. “We are spicy kind of people, and a rice-eating nation,” he says. “I did try to share some of my spices and pickles with my English friends, but it was a bit of a shock for them. Curry was not well known at the time.”

He would gather Mauritian students together over a curry that he would cook, establishing connections around the table. “There’s nothing like food to bring people together,” he says. It is an observation that seems particularly appropriate from someone who would ultimately make a career of building relationships.

High Commissioner Jeetah remained in Britain for almost a decade, living in Manchester, before returning to Mauritius in 1994. His father had been a Member of Parliament who participated in the politics surrounding Mauritius’s independence from Britain, and was determined that his son should return home and contribute to the country. So, he sold the property he had bought in Manchester and went back.

Britain, however, remained a constant throughout his subsequent career. As an academic at the University of Mauritius, he developed links with the University of Manchester, including arrangements for external examiners to help advise and moderate academic work. Decades later, he has returned to the country that educated him – this time as Mauritius’s most senior diplomatic representative in London.

From minister to diplomat

A scientist and academic by training, the High Commissioner subsequently entered politics, serving as an MP and spending around a decade as a government minister across several portfolios.

Moving from ministerial office into diplomacy has required a change of pace. “It’s taken a little adjustment to remind myself I don’t have the same quick decision-making power that I had as a Minister,” he admits. Yet his years inside government have given him an unusually practical understanding of how policy is made and implemented. “I’ve had the chance to work in three different ministries and understand their systems,” he says. “So, I have prior knowledge of the requirements of the country and the way it operates, which is undoubtedly an asset in this role as a diplomat.”

That results-oriented approach is already evident in London. High Commissioner Jeetah points to engagement with UK Export Finance over potential investment supporting Mauritian infrastructure, while stressing that any eventual projects will align with his government’s priorities.

His varied career has also taught him not to rely on a single route to achieve an objective. Education, for example, is a major priority. The High Commission is engaging with British universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester and Imperial College London, while exploring opportunities in medicine, technology and artificial intelligence.

“My experience in various fields has told me to keep our options open and engage with different points,” he says. “And it’s working, I would say. We keep on improving on where we were, to where we would like to be.”

An economy transformed

Mauritius’s own development provides a striking illustration of this willingness to diversify. At independence in 1968, its economy was overwhelmingly dependent on sugar. Tourism followed, then textiles, financial services and ICT.

The country’s multicultural identity has been central to the success of its tourism industry. “Mauritius is unusual in the sense that it's a mixture of the whole world, with people from Africa, Asia, Europe and other continents,” Jeetah says. “Our inhabitants and food are a mixture of various cultures, which it turns out has a broad appeal.”

Foreign partnerships have played an important part in successive stages of the country’s development. Hong Kong investors helped develop the textile sector; British links contributed to the expansion of accountancy and financial services; and Mauritius subsequently emerged as an important conduit for international investment, including into India and Africa. Today, the country is also developing its ICT capabilities.

For High Commissioner Jeetah, Mauritius’s experience contains a broader lesson about how small states can operate internationally. At approximately 2,000 square kilometres, the country cannot rely on scale to command attention.

“Our small size is a challenge in terms of getting heard on the global stage,” he acknowledges. But Mauritius has compensated through relationships and negotiation. He points to the country’s historic sugar arrangements with Europe as an example of diplomacy delivering tangible domestic benefits, helping provide the stability that supported investment in roads, schools, education and healthcare.

Since independence, Mauritius has carefully maintained relationships across different geographic and political spheres – with the UK and France, European partners, African states and institutions, India and countries across Asia. “Mauritius doesn’t have any enemies,” Jeetah says simply.

An enduring relationship with Britain

The UK remains among Mauritius’s most significant partners. The two countries share deep institutional ties, reflected in Mauritius’s parliamentary, legal, civil service and education systems, alongside contemporary cooperation in trade, investment and education.

London is also an important base for Mauritius’s multilateral diplomacy, including its engagement with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Maritime Organisation. The forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda provides another important forum, with climate finance among Mauritius’s priorities. The country hosts the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub and hopes to expand its reach in this area.

Inevitably, the relationship is also viewed through the prism of the Chagos Archipelago. For Jeetah, however, the issue is not simply one of treaties, sovereignty or strategic interests. He is particularly concerned with the people whose lives have been shaped by the issue.

The High Commissioner speaks of the Chagossians removed from their native islands and taken to Mauritius, and of the expectations generated by the prospect of resettlement. “What guarantee can I give to a 99-year-old person who wants to return to the Chagos Islands, pay respect to their ancestors, their church and land – and even further spend the rest of their days there?” he asks. “This is the sad human part that I wanted to share.”

Nevertheless, the High Commissioner remains optimistic that outstanding difficulties will ultimately be resolved. “This is a 60-year-old issue,” he says. “But I’m confident that this will be taken care of; it’s just a matter of time.”

Diplomacy beyond the office

High Commissioner Jeetah’s diplomatic responsibilities extend beyond Britain. He also represents Mauritius to the Holy See, Ireland and four Scandinavian countries. Among the most memorable experiences of his career was a recent visit to the Vatican to meet the Pope.

Walking up the stairs to the room where ambassadors were being received left a particular impression. “To think of the people that walked up these stairs 2,000 years ago! That was truly special,” he recalls. Presenting his credentials to King Charles III was another significant moment, alongside his first election to political office in 2003.

“These are some special moments in a politician’s life and life as a diplomat,” he says. “And of course, my work means I get to meet wonderful people from all around the world. It’s a very interesting job.”

Away from diplomacy and politics, however, another side of the High Commissioner emerges. Jeetah is a passionate farmer and horticulturalist. At home in Mauritius, he tends an orchard and a collection of endemic plants, including numerous varieties of lychee. Even his London office has not entirely escaped his green fingers: outside the High Commission he has begun cultivating a small balcony orchard.

“I've got all sorts of fruits, and I talk to my trees,” he says. “I love growing things.”

His interest extends to the conservation of Mauritius’s unique flora. He has been collaborating with Kew Gardens to highlight rare Mauritian species, including ebony, and says plants are a subject that frequently arises in his conversations with King Charles. “Every time I get the chance to meet with His Majesty, the King, we talk about plants and trees. He’s very enthusiastic.”

There is a pleasing symmetry to High Commissioner Jeetah’s return to Britain. More than four decades after arriving as a student, carrying spices from home and finding friendship behind the bar of a Manchester pub, he is back representing Mauritius at the highest level.

His career has taken him from the laboratory and lecture theatre to parliament, ministerial office, agriculture and now diplomacy. Across those very different worlds, one principle appears remarkably consistent: relationships matter.

For the representative of a small island state with connections spanning Africa, Asia and Europe, that instinct for bringing different people together may prove one of his most useful diplomatic assets.