Mukherjee said India hopes this will support specific projects in different Pacific Island countries.
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The leaders are on their visit to India to participate in the second summit of Forum for India-Pacific Island Countries’ (FIPIC).
He said that India, like the Pacific Island Countries, has chains of islands and is also experiencing the negative impact of climate change. Identifying climate change as a major challenge, Swaraj said India has started pricing carbon, incentivising afforestation and expanding the use of low carbon and renewable technologies and would like to share the expertise with FIPIC countries.
Most Indians have never heard of countries such as Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru, Samoa, Vanuatu, Niue, Micronesia or the Marshall Islands – but the presence of their heads of state in the northern Indian city of Jaipur is set to raise awareness about them and elevate their strategic importance in Asia.
“India is committed to partner with you in your efforts to achieve the developmental goals of your respective nations”.
Mr Mukherjee said he was convinced that their bilateral cooperation had much greater potential waiting to be realised.
Reciprocally, as a sizeable voting bloc in the United Nations General Assembly, they have indicated support for India’s bid to secure permanent membership on the Security Council. “India has made considerable progress in the field of information technology, health, solar energy, disaster mitigation and management, agriculture – particularly coconut and coir and oil and natural gas exploration”, he added.
“I am very optimistic about FIPIC Summit”.
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One of the key outcomes of the first summit in Suva, Fiji was that top leadership of both India and Pacific Islands should meet at a regular intervals and that an annual summit must be instituted in this regard. The summit will be held at Jaipur’s Rambagh Hotel and is taking place in India for the first time.
