Fiji and India have today renewed commitment to advance cooperation in key areas such as economic prosperity, climate mitigation and sustainable development.
India’s unwavering support was conveyed to the Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Honourable Sitiveni Rabuka, during a bilateral meeting held this afternoon, with the Minister for External Affairs of the Republic of India, Honourable Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
In his remarks at the joint press conference, Prime Minister Rabuka on behalf of the Government and the people of Fiji, extended his sincere appreciation to Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Shri Narendra Modi and the people of India for their continued support to Fiji.
He thanked India for assisting Fiji during times of great need, particularly through the provision of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, lifesaving vaccines and support for Fiji’s rebuilding efforts from the covid-19 pandemic and climate crisis.
The Head of the People’s Coalition Government also acknowledged Minister Jaishankar for his first official visit to Fiji.
“Honourable Minister, your visit to our shores, symbolizes the warm and long-standing friendly relations, mutual respect, goodwill and strong people to people ties shared between our two nations.”
He further said that Fiji is keen to host such high level conferences and events like the 12th World Hindi Conference which, promotes and celebrates the preservation of Hindi language and culture, in the future.
The Prime Minister also reaffirmed Fiji’s support for India’s Presidency on G20- a platform to further advance mutual issues of interest to Fiji, Pacific and the global family.
In his role as the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Chair, Prime Minister Rabuka spoke on his commitment to reunite the Pacific family.
He is also grateful for India’s support for the collective vision of building a resilient and prosperous Pacific region through the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
The meeting highlighted prospects for Fiji-India’s cooperation in key areas of development, notably in health, education, renewable energy, information technology, private sector development, agriculture, sugar industry, to mention a few.
A key achievement of today’s meeting saw the official signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on exemption of Visa requirements for holders of diplomatic and official passport.
Prime Minister Rabuka said, “The MOU represents a milestone achievement in building a stronger connectivity for peoples of both the nations. It will bolster economic opportunities in trade, tourism, business and investment.
“On behalf of the Government of Fiji, I thank the Government of India for realisation of this important cooperation. I am confident that we will witness many more of such initiatives unfold through deepened cooperation.”
He also extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to Fiji, at a time convenient to him.
At the same time, he extended his best wishes to Minister Jaishankar and his delegation as they conclude their official visit to Fiji today, following numerous deliberations.
In response, Minister Jaishankar reiterated that India attaches great importance to its relationship with Fiji, within the Indo-Pacific region.
He thanked Prime Minister Rabuka and Fiji Government for the kind hospitality accorded to him and for the excellent partnership in organising the World Hindi Conference.
“India and Fiji shares close relationship and family ties rooted in our historical linkages with a strong cultural similarities.
“In terms of our discussions with the Prime Minister and his senor colleagues today, we reviewed our bilateral ties.
“We discussed very openly the possibility of adding to substance and improving the quality, there were some specific domains which, the Prime Minister in his remarks referred to,” Minister Jaishankar said.
He mentioned that the visa waiver agreement will be helpful to encourage greater travel between our two countries.
“We have longstanding ties and a lot is built on people to people linkages. We are privileged to partner with Fiji in the national building efforts across various sectors, capacity building in health, education agriculture and we have done projects in sugar cane and worked together on renewable energy.
“One part of our discussion looked at areas like Information Technology (IT) support for medium and small enterprises. So there is really substantive bilateral agenda before us,” Minister Jaishankar highlighted.
Minister Jaishankar’s visit to Fiji is the first high-level visit from the Government of India in almost a decade since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Fiji in 2014.
Fiji and India share a profound history which, began when the first indentured labourers arrived on our shores in 1879.
To read full text of Hon. Prime Minister’s speech refer to the link below:
https://www.fiji.gov.fj/Media-Centre/Speeches/English/PM-SLR-SPEECH-BILATERAL-MEETING-MIN-EXTERNAL-AFFAI?fbclid=IwAR2Wl0ZZ1SjJU-KNM_W3JeQh1d7NpT4C17VMjJjQPosOPCo5U9WIyUoztF8
