Haritha's Musings: India’s Engagement with Pacific Islands

India scripted new era in diplomatic engagement by hosting the second Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) at Jaipur on August 21 and 22^nd. Pacific Islands are believed to have great significance for India conventionally for the huge wealth of unexplored natural resources, strategic location and to counteract the growing Chinese influence. Beyond these apparent comprehensible advantages, under the extended “Act East Policy”, building strong ties with these islands will help India fathom the extent of the diversity and complexity inherent to these islands. Though the islands are very small they have huge Economic Exclusive Zones (EEZ) offering a plethora of possibilities for bilateral cooperation especially towards development of Blue Economy.

The inter-governmental group of Pacific region formed in 1971 as the “South Pacific forum” to promote regional cooperation between the independent countries of Pacific islands later encompassed regions of the Oceania following which the name changed to “Pacific Island Forum” (PIF) in 1999 (1). This has attained an official observer status in the UN. PIF wanted to diversify its relations with other major powers of the World other than Australia and New Zealand, the two large neighbours and major donors to the forum. The broader mission of the forum has been to act as a supportive platform that strives to enhance the economic-social well being of the islands in the region by fostering inter-governmental cooperation between the countries. After formation of PIF there has been steady increase in the cooperation between the nations and a free trade agreement has been reached among the nations except Palau and Marshall Islands. Following a coup in Fiji in 2009 the forum unequivocally decided to suspend it indefinitely till democracy has been restored. The suspension was lifted when the general elections were conducted in September 2014. The forum has 17 dialogue partners which include: India, US, Japan, Canada, Cuba, Thailand, Indonesia, EU, UK, China and others. The first annual summit of the FIPIC was held in Suva, Fiji in November 2014 (2) where Modi addressed the heads of states of all the 14 island countries marking the genesis of FIPIC. Modi visited Fiji in November 2014, while returning from G-20 summit held in Australia. During his bilateral talks he indicated that India intends to enhance its engagement with the 14 island nations and proposed that FIPIC be held annually and expressed his desire to host them the following year (3).After two days of Modi’s visit to Fiji, President Xi Xinping of China set foot in Suva and met representatives of the 14 nations.

Due to geographical proximity previously this forum was largely dominated by Australia and New Zealand the two major countries in this region. The member countries in this region belong to three distinct sub-regions- Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. Micronesia includes Palau, The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Nauru where the US exerts its control ever since they have become its territories. Melanesia covers Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and through its Melanesia Spearhead group it has made considerable progress than its peers. Polynesia comprises of independent countries of Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Niue and Cook Islands which are close to New Zealand and they were its former colonies. Pacific Ocean covering 33% of the earth’s surface encompasses 41 sovereign states and 22 non-independent territories are highly solicited by the bigger economies for their strategic locations. Indeed Pacific Ocean region home to number of countries has become ground for intense rivalries too (4).

Till now India has been complacent managing its geographical and strategic interests limited to the Indian Ocean region. FIPIC is indeed the first ever spirited effort by India to enhance its diplomatic engagement with the Pacific Ocean nations. During the first FIPIC summit Prime Minister Modi has chartered out future course of engagement which included setting up of $1 million special fund for adapting climate change in terms of developing clean energy and for establishing trade office in India. Besides Pan Pacific Islands E-network was spear headed to close in physical distances and improve the digital connectivity. India has also announced VISA upon arrival to all the 14 nations, expressed willingness to provide training to diplomats, agreed on “space cooperation” and increased Grant-in-Aid from $125,000 to 200,000 to each of the country towards community projects of their choice.

During the second FIPIC, India displayed a resolve to strengthen the ties by announcing a slew of projects. Accordingly India will set up an Institute for Sustainable Coastal and Ocean Research and a network of marine biology research stations. These efforts will culminate into organising an international conference on “Ocean Economy and Pacific Island Countries” in 2016. India has offered direct Navy support and capacity building for Ocean surveillance, hydrographic surveys and for strengthening security of EEZs, agreed to train personnel and help in disaster management, natural calamities, and in development of human resources & applications of space technology. Apart from the existing scholarships, India will now offer two scholarships for college education in the country for each of the 13 countries (Fiji already has 33). India will set up an information technology laboratory in each of the countries, start FIPIC trade centre in Delhi and allow market access to the Small Island Developing nations. New Delhi is ready to set up a Pharmaceutical plant and distribution centre in the Pacific Islands region and offered line of credit for this project. India will now provide gratis visa to the nationals of Pacific Islands.

While all the promises and projects are high on paper it is time that India should henceforth surge ahead in delivering the promised within the delegated time frame. India unlike China despite of its vast investments enjoys huge good will among the island nations. It is time that India evolves special mechanism to honour projects to be implemented abroad on a faster pace. Indian diplomatic representation in these islands is very weak and entire region is reached by small non-resident Indian missions. To strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation it is essential to establish diplomatic presence in each of the countries. India should now seriously contemplate on commissioning special envoys to these countries. India has a special friendship with Fiji efforts should be nurture these relations into closer ties with other nations in the region as well (5).

The “blue economy” of the Pacific islands is looming under the threat of the global warming and extreme weather conditions. The islands being far flung and spread out in the Pacific Ocean communication is challenging. India can extend its supports in the field of telecommunications, digital connectivity, space applications, climate change, food processing, tele-medicine, fisheries and solar energy and make a significant impact in this region. India’s bilateral trade with the 14 countries in $300 million of which $200 million is India’s exports and $100 million is its imports. Modi’s initiative comes at a time when China has overtaken Australia and New Zealand as the largest donor for the developmental projects in this region (6). Engagement with islands which are spread across a region that accounts to 20% of the globe will be highly significant for India. As seasoned diplomats remarked, engagement with Pacific region is highly personality driven and hence closer engagement is prescribed for substantial results.

Haritha's Musings

Friday 11 September 2015

India’s Engagement with Pacific Islands

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