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Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, is increasingly becoming a popular travel destination.
It's the greenest green like I've ever seen.
Peter Martin is a Bloomberg correspondent covering Africa and the Middle East.
He's based in Nairobi, Kenya, in East Africa.
And last month he hopped on a four hour flight to Mauritius.
I'm from the countryside in England
and the plants growing in this volcanic soil on the side of these
dramatic mountains and then surrounded by these perfect blue waters and coral reefs.
It's really a strikingly beautiful place.
But Peter wasn't in Mauritius to take a vacation.
He was there
because the tiny island nation is now front and center of an increasingly tense and vital global power play.
It's one of those parts of the world that after the Cold war was a little bit forgotten.
And it's largely known for its perfect beaches and as a tax haven.
But it's also emerged as a kind of crucial theater for competition,
this kind of interesting three way tussle between China, India and the United States.
Mauritius and its neighboring islands in the Indian Ocean are strategically important for these global powers.
They use the islands as bases to protect shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and to project military power throughout the region.
And China's growing presence and influence in the Indian Ocean is raising alarm in India.