The ‘India-Pacific Islands Sustainable Development Conference’ hosted by Ministry of External Affairs, India, was held in Suva, Fiji in May 2017.
Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, in his message to the conference expressed hope that the conference would enable a better understanding of solutions to the challenges faced by the region, as well as the opportunities that present themselves.
While welcoming the high-profile delegations from 14 Pacific Island Countries, Minister of State for External Affairs, Gen. (Dr.) V K Singh (Retd.) reaffirmed India’s commitment to strengthening and taking forward its partnership with the Pacific Island Nations to take concrete action to create a sustainable world.
The Minister stressed on the need to join hands through knowledge sharing, technology sharing and capacity building to minimise the serious impact of natural hazards, limiting human and economic loss.
Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh announced that India will contribute US$ 1 million to Fiji’s Trust Fund for their Presidency of COP-23 to be held in November 2017.
The conference was held under the framework of the Forum for India Pacific Islands Co-operation (FIPIC), with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as its key knowledge partner.
Other key partners at the conference included National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF).
India engages with the Pacific Island Countries on a wide range of issues including climate change. FIPIC was formed in November 2014, to strengthen India’s relationship with the Pacific Island Countries. The first FIPIC summit was held at the level of Heads of Government in November 2014 in Suva, Fiji, followed by the FIPIC-II summit held in August 2015, in Jaipur, India.
India also signed several Memoranda of Understanding with Pacific Island Nations to deepen co-operation across a variety of fields. These include MoUs for setting up of Centres of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) with Fiji, Cook Islands, Nauru, Samoa and Niue.
India and Fiji also signed three MOUs for ‘Co-operation in Youth Development’, ‘Cooperation between Broadcasting Agencies’, ‘Cooperation in the field of Renewable Energy’.
Prasar Bharti of India also gifted programmatic content on India for telecast to all the Pacific Island Countries.
