Two new countries, Argentina and Saudi Arabia, have signed the framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), joining hands with India towards a common goal of sustainability.

The ISA is an Indian initiative that was jointly launched by Prime Minister Modi and French President Hollande on November 30, 2015, in Paris, on the sidelines of COP21, the UN Climate Conference. On December 6, 2017, ISA became a treaty-based international intergovernmental organization after Guinea ratified the organization’s framework agreement.

As of now, a total of 73 countries have signed the framework agreement of the ISA.

The agreement between Argentina and ISA was signed on the sidelines of the Argentinian President Mauricio Macri’s official visit to India.

“A new partner in the Alliance. Argentina becomes the 72nd country to sign the Framework Agreement”, Raveesh Kumar, Spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs tweeted shortly after the signing event.

Saudi Arabia also signed the framework agreement of ISA during the official visit of Mohammed Bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, to India.

Recently, Mercom reported that ISA and the European Union had signed a joint declaration for cooperation on solar energy. The declaration was inked at the 24th conference of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Katowice, Poland.

In November 2018, the Indian government had submitted a resolution to the first assembly of the ISA for the amendments in the framework agreement to open ISA membership to all the countries that are members of the United Nations.

Before the resolution, the ISA mandate addressed overcoming the obstacles to deploying solar energy at scale through the improved harmonization and aggregation of demand from solar-rich countries located fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Earlier, at the inaugural conference of the ISA held in New Delhi, the Government of India pledged $1.4 billion to fund the development of solar projects in 15 African and South Asian countries that are part of the ISA consortium.