The Bahamas Becomes 116th Member of International Solar Alliance After Handing Over Ratification Instrument in New Delhi

Key facts

• The Bahamas handed over its instrument of ratification of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework Agreement in New Delhi on 3 November 2026, on the sidelines of the 9th ISA Assembly, becoming the ISA's 116th member country.
• Bahamas High Commissioner to India P. Nicholas Symonette Jr. handed over the instrument to P.S. Gangadhar, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and head of the ISA Depositary.
• The Bahamas Foreign Ministry said ISA membership will help expand solar power and battery storage and cut dependence on imported fuel.
• The ISA was launched on 30 November 2015 in Paris at COP21 by India (PM Modi) and France (President Hollande); its Framework Agreement was opened for signature on 15 November 2016 at Marrakesh (COP22) and entered into force on 6 December 2017.
• The Framework Agreement enters into force on the 30th day after the 15th ratification; Guinea became the 15th ratifying country on 6 November 2017, making the ISA a treaty-based international body on 6 December 2017.
• The Government of India is the ISA Depositary under Article XIV, so new members lodge their instruments with India's Ministry of External Affairs; the ISA headquarters is at the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) campus in Gurugram, Haryana.
• Under an amendment adopted at the first ISA Assembly in 2018 and in force from 8 January 2021, all UN member states can join the ISA; the ISA Assembly, with one vote per member, meets every year.
• The Bahamas is an Atlantic archipelago south-east of Florida and north of Cuba, with capital Nassau on New Providence island; the Tropic of Cancer passes through the Exuma islands, and its currency is the Bahamian dollar.
• The Bahamas gained independence from Britain in 1973 (self-government in 1964), with the British monarch as head of state through a Governor-General, and is a member of the Commonwealth and CARICOM (since 1983).
• Most scholars believe Columbus first landed in the 'New World' on San Salvador island in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492.