India asks Pacific island nations to propose their own priority areas where it can help them

United Nations: External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar asked Pacific island countries of the Global South to propose their own priority areas where India can help them.

Speaking at a meeting of the Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) on Wednesday (local time), he said, "If we can get from you your priority, a particular area where you feel that it would be useful to have people ... their professionalism or their capacity strengthened," India could customise programmes.

"We could actually customise a module in a particular domain only for the Pacific Islands," he said, so that people from a region can come to India for a certain duration on a subject of your priority, he said.

What sets India's aid programmes apart from others is that they are based on priorities set by the recipients and not by the donor, India, and they do not burden them with loans.

Much of the aid is funnelled through programmes like the India-UN Development Partnership Fund or the IBSA Fund, set up jointly with Brazil and South Africa, ensuring their independence.

India has committed $150 million to the UN partnership fund.

EAM Jaishankar also asked the 14 countries of the FPIC for proposals for Quick Impact Projects, which can be done with India's funding, but using local resources, with results in a short time frame.

The projects would "impact a community where this is set up, and our experience around the world is that ... immediately a community relates to it".

This is because "it can be something of a local product which is better processed".

EAM Jaishankar reviewed with ministers the progress of aid programmes of India in those countries.

These range from provisions for solar power to houses, training women engineers in the technology, and utilising space technology to supplying sea ambulances and building hospitals.

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