International relations exist between the nation of India and the Pacific Island Nations.[1]

Relations between the nations are shaped by militaristic national security issues, as well as by environmental issues. In 2022, a diplomatic push by China to expand military bases and increase economic and political influence in the south pacific; was closely watched by India. This is in part because pacific island nations exist in a region with maritime borders that overlap sea lanes important for world trade.[2]

Overview

India has sought stronger ties and influence with Pacific Island Countries since at least 2014, after establishing the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation. It has participated in technological diplomatic efforts in those countries in the fields of natural disasters, solar power, electrification, among other areas. India has also opened a space research and satellite monitoring station in the Fiji islands.[3]

In May 2023 India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Papua New Guinea for the purpose of visiting leaders of Pacific Island countries as part of the . India first hosted a meeting of that forum in 2015.[4] In Port Moresby Modi met with leaders of Vanuatu at the Port Moresby summit.[5] The visit was partly motivated for reasons that India had concerns regarding potential naval bases, and Chinese control of ocean resources in the Pacific Island region.[6] Indian engagement with pacific island nations has been described as having 'enormous potential to transform local economies' by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.[7]

The pacific island nations have been a prominent topic in discussions of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue that India is a part of.[8]

Climate change diplomacy

Pacific island nations regularly advocates in international forums for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from large economies such as the United States, China, and India. One particularly strong advocate is Vanuatu, motivated in part by the fact that Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable nations in the world to the effects of climate change.[9] A call by Vanuatu's president Nikenike Vurobaravu to develop a 'fossil-fuel non-proliferation treaty' was criticised by Indian commentators as 'misplaced in intent and purpose'; claiming that it would deter Indian development.[10][11] India's position is that coal should only be 'phased down' and not 'phased out'.[12]

In response to India's protesting the language of the resolutions at the Glasgow climate conference, the Alliance Of Small Island States attempted to make fossil fuel elimination a part of national climate plans at COP27.[11]

Opposition also emerged between India and pacific island nations during the Bonn conference.[13]

Nation-specific relations

Fiji

Relations between India and Fiji are strong, for a number of historical reasons. Some of these include the fact that 50 of people in Fiji are of ethnic Indian descent, known as Indo-Fijians. Mahendra Chaudhry became the country's first Indo-Fijian prime minister in 1999.

Vanuatu

As part of its diplomatic push for influence in the pacific island region, India provided cyclone relief to Vanuatu when tropical cyclone Hola hit the country in 2017.[14]

Vanuatu advocates in international forums for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from large economies such as the United States, China, and India. This is motivated in part by the fact that Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable nations in the world to the effects of climate change.[9] A call by Vanuatu's president Nikenike Vurobaravu to develop a 'fossil-fuel non-proliferation treaty' was criticised by Indian commentators as 'misplaced in intent and purpose'; claiming that it would deter Indian development.[10][11] India's position is that coal should only be 'phased down' and not 'phased out'.[12] Vanuatu has been described as representative of a "a strong and vocal group of small island-developing states whose voice is heard with attention and empathy in the UN. More so, when it is a matter that will affect the global discourse on climate change" in Indian news publications such as The Hindu.[15]

Vanuatu has been described as representative of a "a strong and vocal group of small island-developing states whose voice is heard with attention and empathy in the UN. More so, when it is a matter that will affect the global discourse on climate change" in Indian news publications such as The Hindu.[15] In March 2023 Vanuatu proposed a climate justice resolution which was adopted by the UN General Assembly by consensus.[16] This resolution was co-sponsored by Australia, and was not supported by India.[17]

Some prominent people of Indian origin are citizens of Vanuatu due to the country's citizenship programs, including Atul and Rajesh Gupta.[18]

India and Vanuatu have opposing stances in international environmental matters other than climate change, including on the topic of deep-sea mining. Vanuatu has advocated for a pause on deep-sea mining until regulations are in place,[19] whereas India has participated in deep-sea exploration contracts.[20]

References

  1. ↑ Team, ClearIAS (2023-06-04). "India-Pacific Islands Relations". ClearIAS. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  2. ↑ Reporter, Didi Kirsten Tatlow / Senior; Affairs, International (2022-12-29). "China outshines U.S. as global scramble for bases heats up". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-07-09. Li's flurry of activity starkly underscored his country's determined push for economic and political influence in the South Pacific, where growing competition between China and the United States—joined by allies such as Australia and Japan and closely watched by India—swirls across thousands of miles of ocean in a region with sea lanes that are important for world trade, that is crossed by underwater cables carrying global communications, and is dotted with islands that offer excellent ports and airfields of potential strategic importance for whichever military can count on them.
  3. ↑ P.K.BALACHANDRAN (2023-05-26). "India Eyes Land And Seabed Wealth Of Pacific Islands". www.thecitizen.in. Retrieved 2023-07-09. India began ground work for its entry into the PICs in 2014, when it established the "Forum for India-Pacific Islands cooperation" (FIPIC). The FIPIC includes India, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. India already has a strong foothold in Fiji, in which people of Indian origin are 40% of the population. Not so long ago, its Prime Minister was an ethnic Indian, Mahendra Chaudhary. Papua New Guinea has more than 3000 Indians. According to available literature, since 2015, India has been engaged in creating technical capacity in the PICs in the fields of natural disasters, solar energy, electrification, housing, Information Technology, tele-medicine and tele-education. India also announced the opening of a space research and satellite monitoring station on the Fiji Islands which will provide it with an independent satellite tracking capacity. India will assist establishment of a Space Technology Applications Centre in one of the PICs.
  4. ↑ "India's Modi to Visit Papua New Guinea in Outreach to Pacific Island Countries". VOA. 2023-05-18. Retrieved 2023-07-09. The summit, which is being held eight years after India hosted the last one in 2015, could give fresh momentum to New Delhi's bid to establish a presence in the Pacific Island countries. India began its outreach in 2014, but it has been slow to get off the ground.
  5. ↑ "India's Modi to Visit Papua New Guinea in Outreach to Pacific Island Countries". VOA. 2023-05-18. Retrieved 2023-07-09. The 14 countries set to participate in the Port Moresby summit range from such large islands as Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to smaller ones such as Tonga and Tuvalu. The other countries will be Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, Niue, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, Palau and Nauru.
  6. ↑ "India's Modi to Visit Papua New Guinea in Outreach to Pacific Island Countries". VOA. 2023-05-18. Retrieved 2023-07-09. "Those places are very strategic if you want to make a naval base or a friendly port or friendly airstrip and they also have vast ocean resources," retired navy chief Arun Prakash told VOA Tuesday.

    "The main worry for Western countries and India is that several of these countries are a void and China tends to walk into voids and fill them up.".
  7. ↑ Bergin, Anthony (2023-03-03). "Australia has had some Pacific wins, but there's no cause for complacency". The Strategist. Retrieved 2023-07-09. Like-minded countries such as Australia, the US, Japan and France are working better together to create a climate for island state resilience at the macro level. South Korea will soon hold its first-ever Pacific Islands Summit. Fiji has acknowledged Israel for its Pacific islands work in climate change, agriculture, health, education and disaster rehabilitation. India's Narendra Modi will make the first visit by an Indian prime minister to Papua New Guinea later this year. Indian engagement with the Pacific has enormous potential to transform local economies.
  8. ↑ "10 March 2023: The Week in Australian Foreign Affairs". Australian Institute of International Affairs. Retrieved 2023-07-09. They discussed the importance of ASEAN centrality and unity, their commitment to supporting Pacific Island countries "in line with the objectives of the Pacific Islands Forum's 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent", and the progress made under the Quad Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Partnership.
  9. 1 2 Schonhardt, Sara (2022-08-23). "Tiny island nation lays out big plans for climate change". E&E News by POLITICO. Retrieved 2023-07-09. Those damages are fueled by a changing climate that largely was caused by greenhouse gas emissions from economic giants such as the United States — and more recently growing economies like China and India. Vanuatu's tabulation of those financial impacts speaks to a broader international issue: how to compensate countries suffering from the irreparable impacts of climate change, a situation known in U.N.-speak as "loss and damage."

    Vanuatu is one of many climate-vulnerable countries currently pushing for a loss and damage finance facility separate from the pool of money that rich nations have pledged to provide developing nations for clean energy development and adaptation. The money then could be used to support mechanisms such as climate insurance for housing, infrastructure, crops and other assets, or to address the needs of people displaced by climate disasters — all things Vanuatu has included in its loss and damage targets.
  10. 1 2 "Vanuatu Calls for Treaty to End Fossil Fuel Use". The Wire. Retrieved 2023-07-09. This makes Vanuatu the first country to call for such an international binding mechanism to end fossil fuel use. Numerous civil society and health groups as well as the World Health Organization have already called for one. Climate activists welcomed Vanuatu's call. However, the resolution is "misplaced in intent and purpose" and could even deter sustainable development for countries such as India, energy experts told The Wire.
  11. 1 2 3 "Vanuatu's big plea does little to arrest climate change". The Hindu. 2022-11-03. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  12. 1 2 "Vanuatu Calls for Treaty to End Fossil Fuel Use". The Wire. Retrieved 2023-07-09. India has been firm on its stand to only "phase down" coal and not engage in a "phase-out" of the fossil fuel just yet, as it is a developing country that needs the fuel to uplift millions from poverty, as The Wire Science reported last year. Experts have argued that the important thing here is not a complete phase-out for countries like India, but enabling a just and inclusive transition.
  13. ↑ Sadasivam, Naveena (2023-06-27). "How a small island nation is taking climate change to court". Grist. Retrieved 2023-07-09. So now at Bonn, it seems there's an attempt to reopen that whole thing, and that's disappointing. We have a group of countries that are not the most vulnerable, that are using the developing country banner or grouping to argue that [historically low-emitting] developing states should be funding the development of countries like India and China, and Saudi Arabia, for example. For a country like Vanuatu, that's very disingenuous, and it's almost reprehensible.
  14. ↑ P.K.BALACHANDRAN (2023-05-26). "India Eyes Land And Seabed Wealth Of Pacific Islands". www.thecitizen.in. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  15. 1 2 "Vanuatu's big plea does little to arrest climate change". The Hindu. 2022-11-03. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2023-07-09. Usually, such a call by a nation whose contribution to the global energy supplies and emissions is negligible would have gone unnoticed. But Vanuatu represents a strong and vocal group of small island-developing states whose voice is heard with attention and empathy in the UN. More so, when it is a matter that will affect the global discourse on climate change.
  16. ↑ "As Vanuatu proposes climate justice resolution, globalisation of green technology, assertive activism is required". Firstpost. 2023-04-13. Retrieved 2023-07-09. Vanuatu proposed a climate justice resolution, co-sponsored by 120 countries— which did not include the US—which was adopted by the UN General Assembly by consensus. The resolution would allow climate-threatened countries or activist groups to secure an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the obligation of various nations about mitigating the climate crisis under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.
  17. ↑ Dziedzic, Stephen (2023-03-02). "Australia backs climate change obligations neither the US or China wants to go near". ABC News. Retrieved 2023-07-09. Neither China nor the United States, the world's two largest emitters, have signed on as co-sponsors for the motion, and neither have some larger developing countries that remain dependent on coal, including Indonesia and India.
  18. ↑ "Gupta Brothers Confirmed to Hold Vanuatu Citizenship". www.occrp.org. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  19. ↑ McVeigh, Karen; Michael, Chris (2023-07-08). "Future of deep-sea mining hangs in balance as opposition grows". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-09. This time around, the ISA will address a new proposal by France, Chile, Costa Rica, Palau and Vanuatu to pause deep-sea mining until all regulations are in place. If passed, it would act as a moratorium but would require approval by a super-majority, or two-thirds, of the 168 assembly members.
  20. ↑ McVeigh, Karen; Michael, Chris (2023-07-08). "Future of deep-sea mining hangs in balance as opposition grows". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-09. So far, the ISA has allowed companies to explore the deep sea for research purposes only. It has created and adopted regulations to govern 31 exploration contracts, sponsored by 14 nations. As well as Nauru, Tonga and Kiribati, they include China, Russia, South Korea, India, Britain, France, Poland, Brazil, Japan, Jamaica and Belgium.
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