Jaipur gears up for FIPIC summit

JAIPUR: The security has been beefed up in the capital city for the upcoming 2nd Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) Summit which will witness participation by heads of state and government officials from 14 Pacific island nations.

The summit will take place on August 21 here and will be followed by a banquet hosted by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"8 SP rank officials, several additional SPs and Deputy SP rank officials will be deployed in the security arrangements for the summit," Jaipur Police Commissioner Srinivas Rao Janga told PTI.

"Around 2000 policemen will be in the security arrangements," the commissioner said, adding that, quick response teams and units of ATS will also be put on alert in view of the high profile summit.

The delegates are also scheduled to visit the city's Amber fort and City palace for which security arrangements and traffic diversion will be put in place accordingly, a senior police official said.

Looking forward to expand its footprint in the strategically important South Pacific region, India will push for deeper engagement with 14 resource-rich island nations in a range of key areas including trade and investment.

The island nations participating in the FIPIC summit include Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Tonga. Some of these countries have oil and gas reserves.