PM Narendra Modi meets leaders of Pacific Island countries in NY

New York, September 25

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met leaders of the Pacific Island countries on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session here on Wednesday and demonstrated India’s commitment to advancing their development priorities, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

This was the first time the Prime Minister met leaders of the Pacific Islands Developing States (PSIDS) in a plurilateral format, it added.

A release issued by the MEA said the meeting was attended by the heads of delegations of Fiji, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Nauru, Republic of Palau, Independent State of Papua New Guinea, The Independent State of Samoa, Solomon Islands, Kingdom of Tonga, Tuvalu and Republic of Vanuatu.

The leaders deliberated on a wide range of issues, including sharing of development experiences for attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs), enhancing cooperation in renewable energy, joining the newly-launched Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, capacity building, implementation of projects under the India-UN Development Partnership Fund and a roadmap for future India-PSIDS cooperation, it added.

“India’s relationship with Pacific Island nations has deepened with the evolution of Act East Policy, resulting in the setting up of the action-oriented Forum for India-Pacific Island Cooperation (FIPIC),” the release said.

During the first and second editions of the FIPIC summits in Fiji (2015) and Jaipur (2016), Modi had articulated India’s desire to be a close partner of the Pacific Island nations and its readiness to work closely to advance their developmental agenda, it added.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the Prime Minister emphasised that India and the PSIDS had shared values and a shared future, and highlighted the need for development policies to be inclusive and sustainable to reduce inequality and contribute to empowerment and improvement of the quality of people’s lives, according to the release.

He said India was equally committed to tackling the impact of climate change and supported the efforts of the PSIDS to achieve their developmental goals through necessary developmental and technical assistance.

Modi underlined the reality of climate change and called for increasing the share of renewable energy in the total energy mix to mitigate many adverse effects of climate change, the release said. PTI