
India in the Pacific: The Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) (2023)
The fourteen Pacific Island Countries (PICs) occupy less than 0.4% of the world's land area, yet their combined Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) cover close to one-fifth of the Earth's surface. Their strategic location astride critical sea lanes, their vast maritime resources, and their fourteen votes in the United Nations General Assembly have transformed a region once considered peripheral into one of the most actively contested diplomatic spaces of the decade. It is in this region that India has built the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), its principal institutional vehicle for engagement with the Pacific (ICWA, 2023).






