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New Delhi: India and Fiji held their second Bilateral Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting in New Delhi on September 28, discussing ways to expand defence cooperation across military training, maritime security, cyber training and defence-industry collaboration. The meeting also reaffirmed India’s focus on Fiji and other Pacific Island countries as part of its vision for a free, open, inclusive and secure Indo-Pacific.
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The meeting was co-chaired by Amitabh Prasad, Joint Secretary (International Cooperation) in the Ministry of Defence, and Mason Smith, Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for Defence and Veterans Affairs. Both sides expressed satisfaction with growing defence engagements and agreed to maintain regular contact while exploring further areas of mutually beneficial cooperation.
On the sidelines, Smith met Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, with discussions focused on strengthening bilateral defence and maritime ties, including opportunities for greater defence-industry collaboration. The Fijian delegation also visited DPSU Bhavan at the World Trade Centre in New Delhi, where it received a briefing on India’s indigenous defence manufacturing capabilities and saw exhibition displays and augmented- and virtual-reality simulation facilities.
The next step is a planned visit by the Fijian delegation to Kochi on September 29–30. The delegation is scheduled to inspect facilities at the Southern Naval Command to explore and formalise cooperation in advanced naval training and professional aviation training modules. The proposed engagement is intended to strengthen technical skills and operational synergy between the two countries’ maritime forces.
The talks build on an established defence relationship that includes a 2017 bilateral defence cooperation memorandum and training and capacity-building assistance. For India, deeper engagement with Fiji also supports its wider Pacific outreach, while the discussions on training, maritime security and defence production create potential avenues for practical cooperation.
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