Context- The third Forum of the Indian -Pacific islands cooperation (FIPIC) Summit was held at Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea on 22nd May.
Key highlights:
- The summit was co-chaired by India and hosted by Papua New Guinea.
- The forum discussed the importance of the 14 members of the small island nations of the Pacific Ocean and on various areas like climate change,poverty,natural calamities,famine and emerging challenges like supply chains of food,fuel,fertilizer and pharma that were facing hurdles.
About FIPIC:
- The Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation is a multinational organization.
- It was established in 2014 for developing cooperation between India and small island nations of the pacific, apart from India the 14 pacific islands that are part of the grouping are Fiji,Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru,Niue,Solomon islands,Papua New Guinea, Samoa,Palau, Tonga,Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
- The previous two summits of the FIPIC were held in November 2014,Fiji and August 2015, Jaipur.
- India’s involvement with the 14 pacific nations aligns with its aims of Act East Policy to foster its relationships as part of the South-South Cooperation.
- India’s development partnership encopmases various areas like infrastructure development, health,education,culture along with community development projects initiatives like refurbishing libraries,school buildings, renovating colleges, providing IT infrastructure to educational institutions and establishing digital libraries. India also aims to support these nations in the field of sustainable development, science and technology and space application.
- The summit of 2015 held in Jaipur was a significant event with announcement of numerous initiatives like providing indelible ink for Fiji and Papua New Guinea’s general elections, the Jaipur Foot camp wherein 600 Fijians received customized prosthetic limbs.
- India on several occasions has extended humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to these pacific island nations like during the Covid-19 pandemic providing vaccines and medical supplies.
.png)
