The Indian Express | 1 week ago | 26-05-2023 | 11:45 am
Visuals of Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape touching Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s feet have been seen as a reflection of India’s global status, and the significance of its engagement with Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC).After meeting United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who stood in for President Joe Biden who had to return to the US for talks on the debt ceiling crisis, Marape said: “This is an extraordinary day for us. We have two extremely important meetings today — separated but joined at the hip, if I can call it this way.”PICs is a cluster of 14 island nations dotting the Southwestern Pacific: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. All these islands are located at the crossroads of strategically important maritime trade corridors.Until recently, the South Pacific was considered to be under US influence, managed under the Australia, New Zealand, US (ANZUS) trilateral military alliance. But with China’s growing influence in the region, and the increasing focus on the Indo-Pacific, New Delhi’s engagement strategy in the region has evolved.Of the 14 PICs, Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG) are the ones with the biggest populations and the most heft. India’s interaction with the PICs has traditionally focussed on its engagement with Fiji and PNG, mainly due to the presence of a large diaspora — about 37% of Fiji’s 849,000 population (2009 estimates) is of Indian origin, and about 3,000 Indians live in PNG.Beginning 1879, Indian indentured labour was transported to Fiji to work on sugarcane plantations. Some 60,000 Indians were brought to the islands between 1879 and 1916; from the early 20th century, Indian traders and others also started arriving in Fiji.Workers’ agitations and the efforts of C F Andrews, a friend of Mahatma Gandhi’s who visited Fiji in 1915 and 1917, led to the abolition of the indenture system in 1920.From 1948 until Fiji’s independence in 1970, India had a Commissioner to look after the interests of people of Indian origin; the post was upgraded to that of High Commissioner after independence.Fiji’s Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara visited India in 1971 and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Fiji in 1981. Following the 1987 coups in Fiji, the High Commission of India and Indian Cultural Centre were closed on May 24, 1990; they reopened in March 1999 and February 2005 respectively. Fiji established its High Commission in New Delhi in January 2004.India-Fiji relations have grown steadily during the past few years due to several ongoing initiatives and bilateral visits from both sides.The Indian High Commission in Port Moresby, PNG, opened in April 1996; diplomatic relations were earlier conducted from Suva, Fiji, or Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. PNG opened its resident diplomatic mission in New Delhi in October 2006.Indian officials say the engagement with the 14 PICs is part of India’s Act East Policy. A major part of the engagement is through development assistance under South-South Cooperation, mainly in the form of capacity building (training, scholarships, grant-in-aid and loan assistance) and community development projects.An initiative launched under the Act East Policy for the PICs is the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC). Prime Minister Modi had hosted the First FIPIC Summit in Suva on November 19, 2014 during his historic visit to Fiji, with participation of all 14 PICs.The second FIPIC Summit was held in Jaipur on August 21, 2015, again with all 14 PICs taking part. During the two Summits, India announced a range of initiatives to assist the PICs in tackling challenges faced by their peoples, and for their well-being and development.Modi attended the third FIPIC Summit this week, hosted jointly with PNG.According to officials, the development partnership with the PICs include community development projects such as solar electrification, supply of agricultural equipment, computers and LED bulbs for schools, sewing machines, dialysis machines, portable saw mills, boats and pick-up trucks, vehicles, construction of sea walls and coral farms, etc.All PICs are vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels. “Initiatives like International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) complement the relationship with PICs. Under the CDRI framework, India, along with Australia, the UK and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) launched the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) on the sidelines of the COP26 at Glasgow in 2021,” and official said.As part of a project for solar electrification of 2,800 houses in 14 PICs, 70 women solar engineers — called Solar Mamas — have been trained. While addressing climate change and goals of sustainable development, the project also aims to provide livelihoods to women.Other community development projects have included a revamp of libraries and school buildings, renovation of colleges, and provision of IT infrastructure to educational institutes.India has been providing Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) to the PICs from time to time. It assisted various PICs with the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and medical supplies during the pandemic.A 2022 paper by Shruti Pandalai at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, along with Akash Sahu and Shruti Sharma, noted that “China has made forays into the Pacific Islands through economic incentives, and has sought to boost its security relationship with the island states”. India, the paper said, “can become a key player in the Blue Pacific 2050 strategy along with its partners like Australia to boost sustainable growth in the region”, and help Southern Pacific countries meet their developmental goals and tackle climate change.The paper flagged the increasing rivalry between China and the US and its allies in the region: “China’s increasing presence in the region has unnerved the US and has caused alarm in Australia and New Zealand.” According to the Sydney-based Low Institute, China’s development support peaked in 2016, and its loans and grants amounted to 8% of all foreign aid to the area between 2011 and 2017, surpassing the US’s 0.3% over the same period.Notably, China’s trade volume with 10 PICs — the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga, PNG, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, and Micronesia — increased more than 30 times from 1992 to 2021. China is the biggest trading partner of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) after Australia and New Zealand.Prime Minister Marape said this week that India has a role in his country especially in mobilising Indian technology and capacities to help in solar energy solutions, desalination, modern health facilities, and information systems capacities.Targeting China, Modi said at the FIPIC Summit, “Those whom we considered trustworthy, it turned out that they were not standing by our side in times of need. During these challenging times, an old saying has proven true: ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed’.”The Prime Minister said he was glad that India had stood with its Pacific island friends during challenging times. “Whether it was vaccines or essential medicines, wheat or sugar; India, in line with its capabilities, has been assisting all partner countries. India respects your priorities. It feels proud to be your development partner. Whether it’s humanitarian assistance or your development, you can count India as a reliable partner,” he said.Pragya Pandey, a fellow at the Indian Council for World Affairs, noted that India’s total annual trade with the PICs is around $300 million, and that it has also been looking to increase its investments in the islands. “The need is to focus…on the idea of inclusive economic cooperation with the region as a whole…[and] on exploring complementarities in trade with the individual countries,” Pandey wrote in a recent paper.IDSA’s Pandalai told The Indian Express on Thursday that Modi’s visit was impactful because of three clear reasons.“One, it showed the gains India has made incrementally as a development partner to this strategic geography and managed to establish a reassuring presence in the region in a way that chequebook diplomacy cannot achieve.“Two, the overwhelming welcome for PM Modi by the PIC leaders and Marape’s reposing of faith in India as the voice of the Global South is significant given that India’s G20 presidency is committed to being a bridge builder in a polarised global order.“Three, it underscores how India is increasingly carving its space as an alternative to countries who don’t want to get caught in the crossfire of binary choices in the Indo-Pacific.”
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