Reunion Islands

In news:

• India and France, for the first time, have conducted joint patrols from the Reunion Island, signalling New Delhi's intent to engage with friendly foreign partners in expanding its footprint in the Indian Ocean, focusing on the stretch between the East African coastline and the Malacca straits.
• India has so far carried out Coordinated Patrols (CORPAT) only with maritime neighbours and had rejected a similar offer by the US.

About Reunion Island

• Réunion is an overseas department and region of the French Republic and an island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar and 175 km (109 mi) southwest of Mauritius. As of January 2020, it had a population of 859,959.
• The island has been inhabited since the 16th century, when people from France and Madagascar settled there.
• Slavery was abolished on 20 December 1848 (a date celebrated yearly on the island), when the French Second Republic abolished slavery in the French colonies. However, later on indentured workers were brought to Réunion from South India, among other places. The island became an overseas department of France in 1946.

PRELIMS QUESTION:

Q. Arrange the following locations in the Indian Ocean from North to South:

1. Maldives

2. Socotra

3. Diego Garcia

4. Reunion

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a) 1-2-3-4

b) 4-2-1-3

c) 3-2-1-4

d) 2-1-3-4

Answer to Prelims question