Supping with a long spoon in the Indian Ocean: the negotiation of the 1972 Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation between Mauritius and the People’s Republic of China

Against the backdrop of Soviet Union’s 1970s reengagement with Africa through Indian Ocean, this article investigates overlapping extensions aid and technical assistance to island nation Mauritius, focusing primarily on unprecedented 1972 infrastructural development offer by People’s Republic China. By analysing minutes Sino-Mauritian Agreement Economic Technical Cooperation’s negotiations as found in United Kingdom’s Foreign Colonial Office dossiers, paper examines Chinese diplomacy a period which saw its admission Nations, realignment against USSR, concomitant latticed transformations diplomacy.