Permanent Mission of India
New York
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5th India-SICA Meeting

Statement by Dr. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister
25 Sep 2025

Excellencies, Dear Colleagues,

I am very pleased to join you all today in this meeting with the Central American Integration System (SICA). And I thank Foreign Minister of Panama, Javier Martínez-Acha, for Co-Chairing this meeting along with me as the Pro Tempore President of SICA.

Excellencies, India regards SICA as a key partner in the framework of South-South cooperation. Our countries face similar challenges, of development, poverty alleviation and climate change and we can address these more effectively if we address them together. Today’s meeting gives us an opportunity to exchange perspectives on our development, on our view of the world and the possibilities of cooperation between us.

At our last meeting of the Mechanism for Political Dialogue and Cooperation that was held in Panama City in April 2023, we reaffirmed the value of our partnership and agreed on the need to deepen cooperation. The discussions acknowledged SICA’s progress within its five pillars of integration, while also addressing challenges such as post-pandemic recovery, energy security, digital transformation, financing for development and climate change.

Over the past decade, India’s engagements with SICA have deepened significantly. We have had high-level visits which demonstrate a commitment to closer ties with Central America. I have myself been to Panama and Dominican Republic, I intended to visit the region this year. Unfortunately, a lot of our attention has gone to trade related concerns which are understandable in the current situation. But I certainly look forward to doing so next year. But my deputy Mr. Margherita has visited the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador and Panama and Nicaragua in the last two years- he will be coming to you, but I will be coming to you too. So these really reflect our growing partnership and our commitment to advancing cooperation across multiple domains.

During the COVID pandemic, we had an opportunity really to underline our bonds by the supply of vaccines, and I recall that because we are ready to work with SICA to strengthen public health systems and to support affordable healthcare.

Last year, severe storms struck SICA countries, causing tragic loss of lives and widespread damage to infrastructure and livelihoods. And India to the best of its ability was able to provide essential medicines, relief materials and emergency aid as a gesture of solidarity. I am happy to inform that Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Honduras have joined the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, which is a global initiative launched to deal with exactly this situation- we started it in 2019. This initiative, CDRI, offers technical expertise, best practices, research and finance and I would encourage other SICA member countries also contemplate doing so.

We are very encouraged by the growing interest of Indian companies to invest in SICA countries, in SICA economies, particularly in agriculture, in renewable energy, in pharmaceuticals and in IT – and these are really sectors where India has been historically very strong. At the same time, our digital payments interface called the UPI – Unified Payments Interface – we have had great success in ensuring a seamless, real-time, and secure method of transferring funds. In fact, today more than half the world’s cashless payments in the world take place in India because of this. As a low-cost, high-efficiency system, UPI has the potential to be applied by others, to transform the payment ecosystems, and we would be very happy to work with SICA partners to see how this digital payments system can be applied to your economies if there is such interest.

Some years ago, when COP21 was taking place in Paris, we also launched the International Solar Alliance. Today, that has 120 signatories, and I know many of you - Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama – you are members of the International Solar Alliance, and Costa Rica has signed the Framework agreement. We hope they will complete the other formalities. We again are very interested in working with you on solar projects, on green hydrogen, on bioenergy. Many of our companies have developed a footprint in these three areas – solar, green hydrogen and bioenergy - across the world, not just in India or in the neighbourhood, but even in the Middle East, in Europe, in fairly different parts of the world.

Another initiative I draw to your attention is the Global Biofuels Alliance. We have today propagated, in fact implemented, the use of biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels. And I think again many of you have rich agricultural resources, it is something which might be of interest to you. We would be happy to work with you, and we would again urge you to look at this Global Biofuel Alliance because it offers a platform and an occasion to exchange best practices. It is also helpful to attract investments in biofuels.

The India-SICA Foreign Ministers’ Meeting provides, Excellencies, an important platform to consolidate and expand our partnership. Building on our dialogue in 2023, we would like certainly to move forward in the digital area, in renewable energy, in food and health security and in climate action. We believe that we can make this partnership one of tangible outcomes which will contribute to a more inclusive, balanced and multipolar world order.

Once again I want to place on record our deepest appreciation that in the middle of so many preoccupations during UNGA, you have taken the time and joined us this morning. Thank you very much and I look forward to our continuing conversation and our continuing cooperation.

Thank you.

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