Why PM Modi’s Papua New Guinea Visit Next Week Is More Crucial Than His Japan, Australia Trips

During his visit to PNG, PM Modi will host the 3rd Summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation and hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister James Marape to strengthen ties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to strengthens ties with Papua New Guinea during his upcoming trip. ( Image Source :PTI )

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Papua New Guinea (PNG) next week is going to be more crucial than his visits to Japan and Australia as New Delhi is worried over the island nation’s growing proximity with China which poses a potential security threat to the entire region and the Indo-Pacific strategic framework, ABPLive has learnt.

Prime Minister Modi will be visiting Papua New Guinea (PNG) on May 22 from Hiroshima, Japan after attending the G7 Summit. The Prime Minister will be having a packed visit to Port Moresby where he will host the 3rd Summit of the Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC III Summit) jointly with James Marape, Prime Minister of PNG.

Thereafter, Modi and Marape will be holding a crucial bilateral meeting wherein both sides will seek to strengthen their bilateral ties, which has seen much neglect over several years.

A top official source told ABPLive, PM’s visit to the Pacific island is not only focussed on bolstering ties with the South Pacific islands but to also take ties with PNG to “newer heights both strategically as well as economically”.

PNG is the most populated as well as resource-rich compared to other Pacific island countries. The country has rich reserves of gold and copper ores and that is one of the reasons why Beijing is deeply eyeing it, sources said.

Before embarking on his three-leg visit to Japan, PNG and Australia, Modi said, “I look forward to engaging with the PIC (Pacific Island Countries) leaders on issues that bring us together, such as climate change and sustainable development, capacity building and training, health and well-being, infrastructure and economic development.”

The FIPIC III Summit will be attended by all 14 Pacific Island Countries.

Last November, PM Marape met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bangkok in which Beijing said both countries are “good friends, good partners and good brothers”.

“President Xi highlighted China’s readiness to work with PNG to pursue high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and to expand cooperation in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, infrastructure, special economic zones, disaster preparedness and mitigation, and green development,” said a joint statement issued after the meeting.

Marape has also been invited by the Chinese to visit Beijing for a ‘State Visit’ and the invitation was extended to him by China’s special envoy to the Pacific Qian Bo last month.

Alarm Bells In Quad Countries Over Papua New Guinea’s China Tilt

After US President Joe Biden cancelled his historic visit to PNG, Modi’s visit there has assumed greater significance since New Delhi is a ‘Major Defence Partner’ of the US and plans to strengthen military-to-military ties with that island.

In June 2017, INS Sahyadri paid a goodwill visit to Port Moresby. Prior to this, in July 2006 Indian Missile Frigate Naval Ship 'Tabar’ had made a port call there.

In 2016, the then President Pranab Mukherjee paid a first-ever State Visit to PNG from 28 to 29 April 2016.

PNG’s strategic location coupled with increasing Chinese belligerence in the South China Sea and South Pacific have sent alarm bells ringing in the Quad countries – India, Japan, Australia and the US – who will soon be kick-starting their annual ‘Malabar’ naval exercise off Sydney coast from August 11-20 aimed at giving more teeth to the vision of freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific, said sources.

The source said PM Modi will be discussing defence and security ties with PM Marape.

“China has started playing its game in the entire South Pacific while evidently, it is focussing more on PNG since it is the big boy in the group. India, along with other members of the Quad, is now trying to do its bit to be more active there as an absence from there by all these countries has given a free hand to the Chinese there,” said a former diplomat who has served as India’s envoy to Australia.

According to the sources, it is the US that is mainly concerned over the growing Chinese influence in the Pacific Islands, which has been “ignored” by Washington for decades.

The diplomat said, “As the US, Australia and others started ignoring PNG, China got a free hand. The realisation to engage more deeply with PNG has only dawned on now when the Chinese are building military bases there.”

The US is now looking to conclude negotiations on a shiprider agreement and Defense Cooperation Agreement with PNG, the talks for which began in March this year with the visit of the US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell.

After a span of three decades, the US opened its Embassy in the Solomon Islands in order to boost diplomatic ties in the Pacific to ward off China. In March the US also unveiled a ‘Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability 10-Year Strategic Plan for Papua New Guinea’.

China is, reportedly, also planning to build a series of military bases in the South Pacific essentially encircling north Australia.