S Jaishankar to visit Fiji from Feb 15-17 to attend World Hindi conference

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit Fiji to attend the 12th World Hindi Conference, which is being co-hosted by the Indian government from February 15-17, the Ministry of External Affairs.

This will be Jaishankar's first visit to Fiji. The visit, first by an incoming Ministerial delegation after the formation of the new Government in Fiji in December 2022, would include bilateral meetings with the new leadership of Fiji.

The visit comes close on the heels of the first high-level visit to India by Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad on 5-10 February 2023.

"EAM will visit Sydney, Australia on 18 February 2023. This would be his third visit to Australia since February 2022 when he first visited Australia as EAM. He would have meetings with the leadership of Australia in Sydney. EAM would also attend the Raisina@Sydney Conference to be held in Australia for the first time," the statement read.

Earlier, Biman Prasad came to India on a five-day visit and attended the first India Energy Week (IEW) 2023. He also met Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, on the sidelines of IEW.

Prasad congratulated Puri for successfully hosting the first-ever India Energy Week with a focus on decarbonization and transition to a clean energy economy.

Discussions focused on how India can support Fiji in its energy transition with the transfer of technology to improve energy efficiency, develop more renewable energy sources and build climate-smart infrastructure.

He also participated in a high-level Ministerial Session on "Strategies for a sustainable and decarbonized future." During the discussions, he highlighted the urgent need for global action on decarbonization if the world is to genuinely fight issues like climate change which is having devastating impacts on the lives and livelihoods of people in small developing island countries like Fiji.

During his visit to India, Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh hosted a lunch in honour of Deputy Prime Minister Prasad.

Later on, he met Jaishankar and discussed development cooperation, and exchanged views on the Indo-Pacific.

Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar also said that he will meet Prasad for the second time next week at the 12th World Hindi Conference.

India-Fiji relations are based on mutual respect, cooperation, and strong cultural and people-to-people ties.