India and the Pacific Islands (FIPIC) Explained

FIPIC, the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation, is a multilateral platform launched by India in November 2014 to engage the 14 Pacific Island countries on development, climate resilience, health, trade and capacity-building. The forum brings the Prime Minister of India together with the leaders of these island nations at periodic summits, and it has become the main channel for India’s collective diplomacy in the Pacific.

FIPIC matters because the Pacific Island countries are small in population but enormous in ocean territory, and they sit in a region where several major powers compete for influence. India uses FIPIC to present itself as a development partner, a fellow developing country and a voice of the Global South, rather than as a strategic rival to anyone. This explainer covers the origins, membership, summits, cooperation areas and limits of the forum, and was last reviewed on 15 October 2026.

Quick Facts: FIPIC at a Glance

Key Takeaways

• FIPIC was launched in November 2014 in Suva, Fiji, as India’s first leader-level forum dedicated to the Pacific Island countries as a group.
• The forum covers 14 Pacific Island countries, ranging from Papua New Guinea, the largest by population, to tiny atoll states such as Tuvalu, Nauru and Niue.
• FIPIC leaders have met at three summits so far: Suva in 2014, Jaipur in 2015 and Port Moresby in 2023.
• India’s FIPIC cooperation focuses on health, renewable energy, climate resilience, training and small community-level development projects rather than large infrastructure lending.
• India describes the Pacific Island countries as “large ocean countries” because their economic zones cover vast stretches of ocean far beyond their land area.
• FIPIC fits within India’s wider Indo-Pacific vision and its effort to be recognised as a leading voice of the Global South.

What Is FIPIC and Why Was It Created?

FIPIC is a cooperation forum created by India to give the Pacific Island countries a regular, high-level platform for dialogue with New Delhi. It was announced during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Fiji in November 2014, the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Fiji in more than three decades.

Before FIPIC, India’s links with the Pacific were bilateral and thin. India had resident diplomatic missions in only a few island capitals, and trade with most of the region was negligible. FIPIC was designed to compensate for this by dealing with the islands collectively, so that a single summit could announce offers on scholarships, grants, visas, health and technology that apply across the region.

Three ideas shaped the launch. First, India’s “Act East” outlook widened India’s attention from Southeast Asia towards the broader Indo-Pacific. Second, the Pacific nations are voting members of the United Nations, and their support matters in global forums. Third, India has historic human links to the region through Indian-origin communities, especially in Fiji, where descendants of indentured labourers taken from India between 1879 and 1916 form a substantial part of the population.

Which Countries Are Part of FIPIC?

FIPIC includes India and 14 Pacific Island countries: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Together they have fewer than 15 million people, and Papua New Guinea alone accounts for the majority.

The group is diverse. Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Solomon Islands are larger Melanesian states with significant land and resources. Samoa and Tonga are Polynesian kingdoms and states with long histories of self-government. Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru and the Marshall Islands are low-lying atoll or small-island states, many of which sit only a few metres above sea level. The Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand, yet they take part in FIPIC as separate participants.

India’s own relationship with the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s main political body, is separate from FIPIC. India has been a dialogue partner of the Pacific Islands Forum since the early 2000s, and FIPIC complements that link with a direct India-led track.

What Happened at the FIPIC Summits in Suva, Jaipur and Port Moresby?

FIPIC has produced three leader-level summits: the founding meeting in Suva in 2014, the Jaipur summit in 2015 and the Port Moresby summit in 2023. Each summit added practical offers, and the long gap between the second and third reflects the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and shifting diplomatic priorities.

The Jaipur summit of 2015

The Jaipur summit was the first FIPIC meeting held in India. It showed that the forum could move beyond the founding announcement, and it was attended by the leaders of most of the participating countries. The outcome documents stressed cooperation in agriculture, climate adaptation, fisheries, solar power and capacity-building.

The Port Moresby summit of 2023

The Port Moresby summit revived the process after a long pause. Papua New Guinea hosted it jointly with India, which symbolised a partnership of equals. The Indian side presented a package of practical projects for the islands, including medical facilities, sea ambulances, low-cost medicines and desalination units. Papua New Guinea also publicly backed India’s claim to speak for the Global South.

How Does FIPIC Support Development and Capacity-Building?

FIPIC supports development mainly through training, scholarships, technical assistance and small projects, not through large loans. India’s offer is built on its experience as a developing country that has solved similar problems at low cost, such as digital public services, affordable medicines and community health systems.

Capacity-building runs through established Indian programmes. Under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme and scholarships offered by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, officials and students from the islands study in India in fields such as public administration, information technology, agriculture, renewable energy and diplomacy. Many Pacific officials have attended these courses, which creates long-term personal links with Indian institutions.

Other development themes include:

• Agriculture and food processing, including support for value addition to crops and fisheries.
• Information technology and digital governance, drawing on India’s experience with digital identity and payment systems.
• Cultural cooperation, such as language, yoga and the shared heritage of Indian-origin communities.
• Trade promotion, including efforts to open Indian markets to island products.

In Fiji, cultural ties are especially visible. The Hindi language is widely spoken as Fiji Hindi, and Fiji hosted the 12th World Hindi Conference in 2023.

What Is FIPIC’s Role in Climate Resilience and Renewable Energy?

FIPIC places climate resilience and renewable energy at the centre of the agenda because rising seas, stronger cyclones and coastal erosion are existential concerns for many Pacific Island countries. For low-lying states such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, climate change is a matter of national survival rather than environmental policy.

India offers cooperation in several ways. It has promoted the International Solar Alliance, an India-led treaty-based organisation headquartered in Gurugram, and several Pacific states have joined it. India has also launched the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), which aims to help countries build infrastructure that withstands cyclones, floods and earthquakes. Both initiatives give island states access to technical know-how and, in some cases, financing.

Practical FIPIC-linked projects have included solar installations, support for rooftop and community power systems, and desalination units that supply fresh water where groundwater is scarce or contaminated by salt water. Small islands often depend on imported diesel for electricity, so solar power can cut costs and improve energy security.

It is worth noting that India itself is a large emitter in absolute terms, although its per-person emissions are low. The Pacific states, as the most vulnerable group, often press larger economies for faster cuts and for climate finance. FIPIC allows India to engage with them as a partner on adaptation without resolving this wider debate.

How Does FIPIC Support Health and Humanitarian Cooperation?

FIPIC supports health cooperation by supplying affordable medicines, building medical facilities and offering emergency response help, which suit island countries that have small populations and scattered geography. Health has been one of the most visible areas of India’s offer.

The 2023 summit announced a package that included a specialist cardiac hospital in Fiji, sea ambulances for the island states, dialysis units, and Jan Aushadhi centres, which are low-cost generic medicine outlets modelled on an Indian scheme. Sea ambulances address a real gap, since patients on remote islands often need transport across open water to reach a hospital.

India also supplied COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies to a number of Pacific countries during the pandemic under its “Vaccine Maitri” initiative, and it has sent relief material after cyclones and other disasters. This humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) work builds goodwill and complements the Indian Navy’s growing reach in the wider Indo-Pacific.

What Are the Small Development Grants Under FIPIC?

The small development grants are modest, community-level funds that India offers to each FIPIC country to finance local projects chosen by the host government. They were announced at the launch in 2014 and are reported to be of the order of a few hundred thousand US dollars per country per year at most, which is small by the standards of major donors.

The idea is speed and visibility. Projects are typically small, such as classrooms, water tanks, community halls, health equipment, solar lighting, school computers or vocational training facilities. Because the paperwork is limited and the host government selects the project, delivery can be quick and the benefits are easy for ordinary residents to see.

The strengths and limits of this approach are clear:

• Strength: small grants are flexible, low on conditions and easy to administer, which island governments with limited staff value.
• Strength: they build goodwill at the community level at a modest cost to India.
• Limit: the sums are small compared with the spending of larger donors, so they cannot transform national infrastructure.
• Limit: monitoring and follow-up on scattered islands is difficult, and projects need maintenance planning.

How Does FIPIC Fit India’s Indo-Pacific and Global South Outreach?

FIPIC fits India’s Indo-Pacific strategy by extending India’s diplomatic presence from the Indian Ocean into the Western and Central Pacific, and it supports India’s Global South agenda by treating small island states as partners with equal standing. It is one of several India-led groupings that link different parts of the developing world.

India’s Indo-Pacific approach rests on principles such as a free, open and inclusive region, respect for sovereignty and international law, and a central place for regional institutions. India’s maritime vision, known as SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region), and the broader Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative reflect the same logic. FIPIC translates it into the Pacific by emphasising development rather than military alignment.

The Global South dimension was prominent at Port Moresby, where India stressed its identity as a developing country with shared concerns about climate finance, food and energy security, and fairer global governance. The Pacific countries, in turn, value India’s willingness to raise their issues in forums such as the G20 and the United Nations. India’s G20 presidency in 2023 gave a further platform for such concerns.

How Does Great-Power Competition Shape the Pacific Context?

Great-power competition shapes the Pacific context because the region contains strategically placed sea lanes, large fishing zones and potential seabed resources, and several major powers are expanding their engagement there. The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, the United Kingdom and China all maintain diplomatic, economic or security links with the island states.

China has increased its aid, trade, policing and infrastructure presence in the Pacific over the past two decades, and a 2022 security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands drew attention from Australia and the United States. Western partners have responded with higher aid, new embassies and security cooperation. Many island leaders say they want to avoid being forced to choose sides and prefer an approach that puts climate change and development first. The Pacific Islands Forum has stressed this stance in its own regional strategy.

India’s position within this competition is that of a smaller, non-aligned and development-focused partner. India has fewer resources to deploy than the larger powers, but it also has no colonial history in the region and a record of low-conditionality cooperation. Some analysts see FIPIC as a long-term investment in goodwill, and others note that India’s capacity to sustain it depends on resources and follow-through. Both views describe the same reality: FIPIC is a modest but growing part of a crowded diplomatic field.

What Challenges and Limits Does FIPIC Face?

FIPIC faces challenges of distance, resources, institutional depth and continuity, and these limit what it can deliver. The island countries are spread across millions of square kilometres of ocean, flight connections with India are thin, and India has resident missions in only a few of the capitals.

Key challenges include:

• Infrequent summits: the gap of nearly eight years between the Jaipur and Port Moresby meetings weakened momentum.
• Limited institutional machinery: FIPIC does not have a permanent secretariat of its own, so follow-up depends largely on India’s Ministry of External Affairs and its missions.
• Resource constraints: India’s grants and lines of credit are small relative to the region’s needs and to the offers of larger donors.
• Connectivity: trade and tourism cannot grow quickly without regular shipping and air links.
• Delivery gaps: announced projects sometimes take years to be completed, and island governments have limited capacity to manage them.

Even so, FIPIC has created a standing habit of consultation. Indian ministers, officials and health teams now travel to the Pacific more often, and Pacific leaders visit India more often than before the forum existed.

Bottom Line

FIPIC is India’s structured way of engaging the 14 Pacific Island countries, built on development grants, health and climate cooperation, training and political goodwill. It is modest in budget and has had irregular summits, but it gives India a recognised role in a region of growing global interest and reinforces its Global South identity.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does FIPIC stand for?

FIPIC stands for the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation. It is an India-led platform launched in November 2014 in Suva, Fiji, to engage the 14 Pacific Island countries collectively. The forum meets at leader-level summits and runs follow-up cooperation through India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

How many countries are in FIPIC and which are they?

FIPIC includes India and 14 Pacific Island countries. These are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

When and where have the FIPIC summits been held?

Three FIPIC summits have been held so far. The first took place in Suva, Fiji, in November 2014, the second in Jaipur, India, in August 2015, and the third in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in May 2023. India and Papua New Guinea co-hosted the third summit.

What does India offer the Pacific Island countries through FIPIC?

India offers small development grants, scholarships and training, health support, renewable energy and desalination projects, and help with disaster resilience. The 2023 package included medical facilities, sea ambulances, low-cost medicine outlets and water projects. The approach stresses quick, low-conditionality, community-level assistance rather than large loans.

How is FIPIC linked to India’s Indo-Pacific policy?

FIPIC extends India’s Indo-Pacific engagement into the Western and Central Pacific through a development-focused channel. It supports India’s vision of a free, open and inclusive region and its Global South agenda. India uses it to build partnerships rather than military alignments.

Is FIPIC a rival to China’s presence in the Pacific?

FIPIC is not designed as a rival to any single country; India presents it as a cooperation platform based on the priorities of the island states. Many analysts nonetheless view it against the background of growing competition among major powers in the Pacific. The island countries themselves generally say they want partnerships with all and pressure from none.

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