00:00Thank you, Excellencies. First of all, let me welcome each and every one of you very warmly to the Indian
00:07Mission in New York.
00:10And I would like to take this opportunity to take stock and discuss with all of you the progress we
00:17have made since the third FIPIC Summit in 2023.
00:23And what I do want to say is that we have two frameworks in which our relationship, particularly our development
00:33partnership, has grown.
00:35One is the FIPIC framework. The other is the India UN Development Partnership Fund.
00:42And through both of them, we have done a number of projects which have underlined our commitment to strengthening livelihoods,
00:52building capacity, and promoting sustainable development.
00:57And in that context, I do want to underline that India fully respects and supports the 2050 strategy for the
01:05Blue Pacific continent.
01:08When we had the last summit, Prime Minister Modi announced a number of initiatives.
01:15And today, I would like to share with you the state of play in that regard.
01:21One, of course, is the progress which has been made on the 100-bedded super-speciality hospital in Fiji.
01:28And it has moved along, and we are confident that this hospital will help to meet the health care needs
01:38of the Pacific Island countries.
01:41The second is with regard to the delivery of haemodialysis machines.
01:49And this has happened in respect of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Palau, Nauru, Kiribati, and the Barshal Islands,
01:59and I believe four other member states.
02:02This is in the process.
02:05Then there is the procurement, the supply of sea ambulances.
02:10And we have received requests from 12 member states for that, for 20 units in total.
02:19This is going on as we speak in India.
02:22And we are confident that by March of 27th, we will be in the position to deliver that.
02:30Planning is also going on for an artificial lymphedmit camp in Fiji next month,
02:37where we hope that about 650 patients, eligible patients who required it, their needs would be addressed.
02:48I want to mention as well that Indian pharmacopoeia has been recognized by Fiji, Nauru, and Solomon Islands,
02:58and that we are keen to establish, share with you, the experiences we have of this competitively stocked people's pharmacies.
03:10That's the way by which we have done an effective outreach on the medical side.
03:17And in the case of Nauru, we have actually supplied the first tranche of medicines.
03:22Then we have also committed to centers of excellence in IT, along with training for local trainers.
03:32I believe this has been done in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Nauru, and Solomon Islands, and
03:41Marshall Islands.
03:42And we have completed the solarization of 2,800 households across 14 Pacific Island countries,
03:51and training for 70 women solar engineers.
03:55There are two ongoing projects as we speak, one in FSM on health, and one in Tuvalu on water infrastructure.
04:07These are through the UN Development Fund.
04:11And where capacity building and training is concerned, we had announced a set of schemes when Prime Minister Modi was
04:22there.
04:23And I think we've had some good progress.
04:27But a proposal I would like to share with all of you for your consideration is that if we could
04:35get from you,
04:36because we can get from you your priority, a particular area where you feel that it would be useful to
04:45have people,
04:46you know, their professionalism or their capacity strengthened,
04:49we could actually customize a module in a particular domain only for the Pacific Islands,
04:58so that, you know, people from a region come in very cohesively,
05:03come to India for a certain duration on a subject of your priority.
05:08And this is something which we would like to develop over a period of time.
05:15There are two other resources which would be of interest to all of you.
05:22One is a Space Technology Application Center, which we are committed to do in Papua New Guinea.
05:28And the second is the Sustainable Coastal and Ocean Research Institute,
05:34which we are similarly committed to do in the University of South Pacific.
05:39So I think both of these, they have moved more slowly than we had anticipated.
05:44But I do want to assure you that that very much remains a commitment.
05:50We have also sought from each one of you a proposal for what we call a quick impact project,
06:00which is something we can do with local resources, with funding by us,
06:06possibly, if required, something coming in from India, but even without.
06:12But which would impact a community where this is set up.
06:16And our experience around the world is that this is, you know,
06:22immediately a community relates to it.
06:24So because it can be, you know, it can be something, a local product,
06:30which is better processed.
06:32It can be an educational institution, which is better served.
06:36So we have received proposals from seven member states so far,
06:41but I would urge the others to.
06:44And if this practice catches your fancy, if you really feel this is working well,
06:51it is something which we were prepared to continue on a sort of a rolling basis
06:59for, for our collective benefit.
07:02On the UN, India-UN Development Partnership Fund,
07:07we have so far done 20 projects.
07:10And as said, we have three projects which are currently ongoing.
07:14Most of these are on climate change, renewable energy, and sustainable development.
07:18And in that context, I would also point to two international initiatives
07:27in which we believe Pacific Islands and India have shared interests,
07:33which is one is the International Solar Alliance,
07:35and the other is the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure,
07:39because, as we can see, climate challenges, climate events are getting more severe,
07:45more significant.
07:47So I thought this was the state of play that I wanted to share with you.
07:53Again, I would very much welcome your thoughts, your feedbacks, your suggestions,
07:58and it is definitely, today is an opportunity to look at it.
08:06Before I conclude, again, I do want to welcome the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum,
08:16His Excellency Byron Barkha.
08:19And I want to say, Excellency, that I was glad to receive your letter informing me
08:25that India has been placed on the strategic partner stream in the PIF.
08:31This is a positive development,
08:34and I'm sure that it would contribute to the further deepening of our cooperation.
08:40So, thank you all, and I look forward to sharing from you.
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