The Indian-led International Solar Alliance (ISA) is closing in on becoming a recognized legal body following the news that Somalia’s ratification of the ISA Framework Agreement has propelled the official number of ratified countries to 10. The ISA requires 15 countries to ratify its terms, before it can be considered a legal body.

According to the ISA website, out of 121 countries, 39 countries have already signed the agreement. ETEnergyWorld reported that Seychelles is the ninth country that has ratified the agreement.

In addition to recent addition Somalia, the nine other countries to have ratified the agreement are:  Bangladesh, Fiji, France, India, Mauritius, Republic of Nauru, Niger, Seychelles and Tuvalu. The ISA expects that it will attain legal body status by December 9 of this year, according to the alliance.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) members at the recent 9th BRICS summit to join the ISA and bridge the gaps of solar energy needs evident worldwide.

Although they are official ISA members, South Africa, and China, have not signed the agreement yet, whereas Brazil have yet to uphold officially to become one of the founding member of the alliance. Russia, for now, is not part of it.

The first 15 countries to ratify the agreement will become the founding members of the ISA  and thus hold special responsibility in the alliance. ISA is a collaboration of solar rich countries located between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. It was created to address these nations’ energy needs and provide a common platform identifyenergy gaps through an agreed approach. The alliance will not replicate any kind of approach that other organizations are following.

The ISA initiative was first proposed by Narendra Modi at India-Africa Summit, 2015 and launched at the UN COP 21 in Paris in December 2015 by the President of France and the Prime Minister of India. Its tagline is “Mobilizing $1 trillion for Solar Energy by 2030”, as stated on UNFCCC website.