$150 million line of credit for Pacific island nations

New Delhi: With an eye on China, which has made rapid inroads into the region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced a slew of measures as part of the economic assistance to 12 Pacific island nations, including allocation of $12 million grant ($1 million to each nation) towards implementation of high impact developmental project in the area of their choice and a concessional line of credit of $150 million, which can be availed by these countries for undertaking solar, renewable energy and climate-related projects based on each country’s requirement.

In addition, New Delhi “proposed to depute technical experts to provide training and offered to organise specialised courses also under ITEC programme in priority areas identified by partner countries, including training of diplomats from Pacific island nations at the Foreign Service Institute”. New Delhi also offered to “organise a Jaipur Foot Artificial Limb Fitment Camp in a Pacific regional hub under ‘India for Humanity’ programme.

The announcements were made by Mr Modi when he interacted with leaders of these countries as part of the “India-Pacific Islands Developing States (PSIDS) Leaders’ Meeting” early Wedne-sday morning in New York on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Asse-mbly (GA).

The meeting was attended by the heads of delegation of Fiji, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Mar-shall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Nauru, Rep-ublic of Palau, Indepen-dent State of Papua New Guinea, The Independent State of Samoa, Solomon Islands, Kingdom of Tonga, Tuvalu and Repu-blic of Vanuatu.

Interestingly, of these 12 countries, two nations — Solomon Islands and Kiri-bati — had recently sna-pped diplomatic ties with Taiwan and embraced China. India, incidentally, like most nations in the world, follows the “One-China Policy” and does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign nation.

China does not have diplomatic ties with any country that recognises Taiwan as a sovereign nation.

Meanwhile, at the PSIDS meeting in New York, Mr Modi made the announcements for the Pacific island nations as part of “his fundamental Mantra “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas Aur Sabka Vishwas (together with all, for the development of all and with the trust of all)”, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said.

“To further enhance people-to-people contact, PM announced a Distinguished Visitors Programme under which eminent persons from these countries can visit India. India would also welcome the visit of a Parliamentarian delegation from the PICs to India. To continue High-Level engagement, PM extended an invitation to all the leaders for the 3rd FIPIC Summit to be held in Port Moresby in the first half of 2020,” the MEA said.

“Leaders of PSIDS welcomed the initiatives proposed by PM Modi to strengthen engagement and cooperation between the two sides and reassured full support from their respective governments. 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 first and second editions of the FIPIC took place in Fiji (2015) and Jaipur (2016). During the FIPIC Summits, Prime Minister 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. This is the first time Prime Minister has met the leaders of the PSIDS on the margins of UNGA in plurilateral format,” the MEA also said.

“The Leaders’ deliberated on wide range of issues including sharing of development experiences for attainment of 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,” the MEA added.

“PM Modi emphasised that India and the PSIDS have shared values and a shared future. He 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. He said that India is equally committed to tackling the impact of climate change and supports efforts of the PSIDs to achieve their developmental goals through necessary developmental and technical assistance,” New Delhi said.