The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced it will begin talks with India on its application to become a full member, taking note of the "strategic importance" of the world's most populous nation in tackling global energy and climate challenges.

The announcement was made in a joint communique following the IEA’s 2024 Ministerial Meeting and 50th Anniversary events in Paris, which concluded on Wednesday.

India, which joined the IEA family as an association country in 2017, sent a formal request for full membership to IEA ministers in October 2023.

In 2021, India also inked a strategic partnership agreement with the IEA to strengthen cooperation in global energy security, stability and sustainability.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) was established as an autonomous agency in 1974 by member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in response to the mid-1970s oil crisis.

The IEA is made up of 31 member countries. In addition, due to its successful open door policy to emerging countries, the IEA family also includes 13 association countries. Five countries are seeking accession to full membership, Chile, Colombia, Israel, Latvia and Costa Rica.

For a country to become a full member of the IEA, it must be a member country of the OECD. India is not an OECD member and prides itself on both geopolitical nonalignment and leadership of the so-called Global South emerging economies.

IEA also mandates its member nations to hold crude oil and/or product reserves (strategic oil reserves) equivalent to 90 days of the previous year’s net imports, to which the government has immediate access (even if it does not own them directly) and could be used to address disruptions to global oil supply.

It was not immediately clear how India and the IEA would get around the issue of non-membership in the OECD. But India has key supporters including France, the US and Australia.

In fact, IEA membership for India was also one of the key topics discussed by US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting in Washington in June 2023.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

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