The Central government on Monday signed ‘The Headquarters Agreement’ with the International Solar Alliance (ISA). The agreement was signed by Minister of State for Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Gen (Retd) VK Singh on behalf of the Indian government and by Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General of ISA.
The agreement has provisions covering definition; interpretation and objectives; legal status, headquarters, other premises for temporary use; the ISA Secretariat property’ funds and assets; communication facility for the implementation of the ISA Secretariat activity; settlement of disputes; supplemental agreements; general provisions for the functioning of the ISA.
“Accordingly, Government of India recognises the international legal personality of the ISA. The ISA Secretariat shall enjoy independence and freedom of action in the furtherance of its official functions and shall have the rights to display its logo, flag and other identifiers, on its programs, premises and vehicles. Government of India shall provide support of Rs 125 crore to ISA for creating corpus, building infrastructure and recurring expenditure over five years duration from 2016-17 to 2020-21,” MEA said in a statement.
The ISA was established on December 6, 2017. On 11 March 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the Founding Conference of the ISA in New Delhi during which the participating States adopted the Delhi Solar Agenda. In his speech at the conference, Prime Minister outlined a ten point agenda in terms of the way forward; and in particular called for making the ISA Secretariat strong and professional.