New Delhi: India and the US took a quantum leap together in an effort to counter China’s growing influence in the South Pacific region by tightening strategic, defence and economic ties with the island nations there that will prove to be a “game changer”, top diplomatic sources told ABP Live.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Papua Guinea late Sunday night, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived there in a few hours thereafter – both countries aiming at bolstering ties with Pacific Island countries even as Beijing kept a close watch on the developments, according to diplomatic sources.
On Monday, during his maiden visit to Port Moresby, Prime Minister Modi laid out a 12-step ‘Action Plan’ to boost bilateral ties between India and Pacific Island Countries (PIC) in an effort to “further enhance” the US-led Indo-Pacific strategic construct, the sources said.
Addressing the 3rd Summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), Modi said, “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. Our perspective is based on human values.”
Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape, who welcomed Modi into his country by touching his feet, said, “We all come from a shared history. A history of being colonised. History that holds the nations of the Global South together”.
PM Marape told Modi at the Summit, “I thank you (PM Modi) for assuring me in the bilateral meeting that as you host G20 this year you will advocate on issues that relate to the Global South; We are victims of global powerplay. You (PM Modi) are the leader of Global South. We will rally behind your (India’s) leadership at global forums.”
At the end of the Summit, Modi announced a slew of initiatives to be undertaken across 14 PICs, including setting up of a ‘Regional Information Technology and Cybersecurity Hub’, building a hospital and offering them sea ambulances, among others.
Addressing the media in Australia, where the PM went after a brief less than 24 hours in Papua New Guinea, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said PIC consider India to be a country which has a developmental template that does not “burden” them,
Kwatra admitted that there has indeed been a “bit of a hiatus” in India’s engagement with FIPIC.
“Now, it is the PM's clear vision and priority that engagement with FIPIC will take place on a regular frequency”, he added.
India's Role In Indo-Pacific And Quad Vis-A-Vis PIC
India is planning to enhance strategic ties with the Pacific Islands since it is now an important player in the Indo-Pacific framework while being a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad.
Despite the Modi government’s initial enthusiasm to increase partnership with the PIC in 2014, the issue remained on the backburner until April 2022 when the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China that “gave rise to concerns” in New Delhi as well as in Washington.
China had also been building economic ties with PIC through various regional forums such as the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the China-Pacific Island Countries Economic Development and Cooperation Forum (EDCF).
Cleo Paskal, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told ABP Live: “Many Pacific Islands have been squeezed between Western economic systems that may not be appropriate at their scale, or even culturally appropriate, especially given complex land laws, and Chinese corrosive economic and political engagement that can undermine democracy at a foundational level.”
She said that the Indian engagement with the Pacific Islands offers them “a real chance to develop in ways that are resilient, appropriate and broad, ultimately benefiting not only the people of the region, but the wider goal of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Blinken Landed In PNG Just As Modi Left
Within hours of PM Modi’s departure from PNG, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken set foot in the Island nation even as both sides signed a ‘Defence Cooperation Agreement’ that will pave the way for greater defence and security partnership between the two.
The US referred to PNG, the largest Pacific Island country, as a "like-minded democracy" to whom Washington is planning to provide over $45 million.
Referring to the US’ and its partner such as India’s vision of a “free and open Indo-Pacific” Blinken told PIC, “when we talk about free and open we mean a region where countries are free to choose their own path and their own partners; where problems can be dealt with openly, rules will be reached transparently and applied fairly; and goods, ideas, and people will flow freely and lawfully across land, the seas, the skies, and cyberspace.”
Last year in September, US President Joe Biden hosted leaders of the PIC at the White House for the first time where he announced a new strategy to forge “deep and enduring” partnerships with them. Later this year a similar summit meeting may be held. Biden sent Blinken to Papua New Guinea owing to debt crisis talks in the Congress.
Harsh Pant, Professor of International Relations at King’s College and Vice President (Studies and Foreign Policy), Observer Research Foundation (ORF), said, “China would be watching very carefully because simply India is not only becoming much more active in South Pacific or India has now a sustained level of engagement with the region, but also because we are seeing, perhaps for the first time, this unique confluence between India and the US.”
He also said, “The fact that Biden could not come was unfortunate but the message that the two countries were giving was interesting, that they are now willing to work in this region, like-minded countries are working in the region collaboratively and coordinating their actions. So I think that is a transformative issue as far as the South Pacific is concerned.”
Pant added, “For obvious reasons these island nations don’t want to be drawn into a US-China and geopolitical rivalry. So, they look at India’s presence as softening some of those geopolitical headwinds.”
According to Pant, India’s presence in PIC is “comforting & important”.
“I think they are looking at India’s much more reversed engagement in the region. So it’s in some ways complementing what India is trying to do to become the voice of the Global South as part of the G20 Presidency and others,” he added.
Ties Between Beijing And Port Moresby
Not just the Solomon Islands, Marape had also been playing ball with China even as Beijing sees the bilateral ties to be between “good friends, good partners and good brothers”.
China has already warned the US against playing “geopolitical games” in the South Pacific region.
“China does not object to normal exchange and cooperation between relevant parties and Pacific island countries. China believes the rest of the world needs to give more attention to and support for the development and prosperity of Pacific island countries,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said last week.
He, however, said, “Any cooperation document to be negotiated and signed should serve this purpose. We oppose bringing geopolitical contests into the region of Pacific island countries by any nation.”
Senior defense and military officials of PICs have visited China on multiple occasions to attend events such as Beijing Xiangshan Forum and the Forum for Senior Defense Officials from Caribbean and South Pacific Countries.
In September 2015, delegations of Fiji, PNG, Tonga and Vanuatu were invited to China to attend or observe the military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
According to Pascal, “China and its agents, including the many in the local elite, have compromised or bought, will do what they can to sabotage Indian ties to the region. We saw a taste of it when the Indian High Commissioner-designate to Solomon Islands was stalled from entry for months.”
“China may also use agents in Australia and New Zealand to try to stir up trouble, including via the Pacific Island Forum. Indian diplomats and its strategic community are used to this, including from similar dynamics in places like Maldives and Sri Lanka and are more than capable of blunting most attacks,” she added.