New Delhi has said that its “agenda” in developing closer ties with the Pacific Island countries (PICs) concern “out and out development cooperation”.
The comments were delivered by Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra following the bilateral talks between PM Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.
“Our development cooperation template doesn’t burden your economies with structural debt, is driven by the needs of the Pacific countries and is along the shared values of democracy, openness and transparency with which India is known to undertake all its development cooperation activities with countries of the Global South,” Kwatra told a press briefing in Sydney on Wednesday.
Recalling the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) meeting in Port Moresby this week, the foreign secretary said that the development cooperation activities that New Delhi proposed to do with the Pacific nations were in the domains of capacity building, health security, as well as maritime domain.
Kwatra added that the cooperation in the maritime domain had more to do with the “economic challenges” faced by the Pacific nations.
He underlined that Australia has a “strong presence” in the Pacific region.
“Traditionally, this is an area where Australia has had a strong presence and our cooperation with Australia can be synergetic in a manner which is beneficial to countries of the Pacific, which are countries of the Global South,” Kwatra said.
New Delhi has said that India is being looked as a “reliable partner” in the Pacific region.
Modi-Albanese Meeting
The Indian foreign secretary said that talks between the Indian and Australian leaders covered both bilateral as well as multilateral issues.
Kwatra said that multilateral matters which figured in the discussions included joint cooperation in the Pacific region as well as Global South, Quad, Indo-Pacific and the United Nations (UN) governance reforms.
He said that Modi and Albanese also spoke about the Ukraine crisis, but only in terms of how it has been affecting the food and fuel situation in the developing nations.
As far as bilateral matters were concerned, the discussions focussed on cooperation in defense and security, trade and investment, new and renewable energy, green hydrogen, critical minerals, education, migration and mobility and people to people ties.
The two leader “welcomed” the signing of the India-Australia Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement (MMPA), which would further facilitate mobility of professionals, researchers and academics between the two countries through a new scheme called MATES (Mobility Arrangement for Talented Early Professionals Scheme) specifically created for India.