From a simple and a global coupled model, we showed that the tropical and extratropical ocean-atmosphere interactions and the teleconnection between the tropics and extratropics in these interactions are responsible for the co-variations of the decadal to interdecadal climate fluctuations in the tropical and extratropical Pacific. The subtropical oceanic Rossby waves are found to play an important role in forming the coupled decadal to interdecadal mode. They are responsible for slow exchanges of mass and heat between the tropical and subtropical ocean gyres that serve as an important oceanic linking bridge of the tropical and extratropical decadal to interdecadal ocean-atmosphere interactions in the Pacific basin. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union