India moves to contain China in South Pacific!
-Dr. Abdul Ruff
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India, like USA, is trying to both appease for Chinese investments and contain, at the same time, the increasing Chinese influence in the South Pacific. Indian agenda goes even beyond the Asia pivot agenda of USA. Like USA, India is also trying for a “legitimate” global reach in order to play an international role.
Since assuming office in May 2014 at the head of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party with a porpoise of brining black money home from abroad and contain corruption, and develop India as super power , Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has undertaken a series of foreign tours, region wise with a focus on foreign investment. .
Modi has strengthened India’s global strategic partnership with the USA. Following US President Obama’s participation in India’s Republic Day celebrations in January, Modi and Obama signed a “Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean.” India is exercising its own claims to “great power” status. Washington is buttressing India’s ambitions through the sale of advanced weaponry and by supporting its involvement in the Indian Ocean and expanding economic and military-strategic influence in South-East Asia.
On August 21 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted leaders from 14 tiny Pacific Island countries (Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) at the second Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Even while claiming to be accelerating efforts to forge better relationship with Beijing, India also thinks it needs to better manage the rise of China. India, however, continues to seek investment from Beijing and has so far fended off joining the USA and its allies, including Japan, in a formal alliance.
China has intervened in the South Pacific by providing a mixture of aid, construction, commercial and trade inducements as well as loans to island nations. It has benefited from longstanding resentments in the Pacific over the neo-colonial activities of the main regional powers, Australia and New Zealand, who have mixed police-military rule with exploitative labor practices and commercial dealings.
The summit was part of Indian efforts to build military defence and strategic ties in the Asia-Pacific, designed to counter China’s diplomatic and economic influence. The strategy aligns India more comprehensively with Washington’s “pivot to Asia”—the drive to isolate, surround and if necessary wage war against China. Indian strategic think tanks have been explicit about the need to counter China, despite India’s smaller resources.
Modi offered various incentives to the Pacific Island countries, including the establishment of an FIPIC trade office in New Delhi to enhance trade with India. He also played to their concerns about global warming which threatens many of the low-lying islands. Modi offered to fund solar power and to assist in setting up early warning and response systems for extreme weather events.
The FIPIC was founded in Suva, Fiji, in November 2014 during a bilateral visit by Modi who declared that “the centre of gravity of global opportunities and challenges are shifting to the Pacific and Indian Ocean region. Modi said that while small, the countries assembled were important to India and pledged to stand by them in international forums while India in return expects them to support its UN veto ambition.
India is seeking to expand its military reach into the Pacific. India is lobbying for its naval ships to be able to dock in the western Pacific and for a site to build a satellite-monitoring hub in the region. A satellite-monitoring centre would help India overcome a current “blind spot” whenever its satellites pass over the Pacific—a “shortcoming” that forces it to depend on Australia or the US, thus “limiting strategic applications.” The Indian navy will also extend the same package of “security” and survey assistance that it has for the Indian Ocean, and promote regular “goodwill” visits by its warships. In June the Indian navy deployed four warships to conduct training with Malaysian vessels in the vicinity of the disputed Spratly Islands, near where the Indian state-owned ONGC Videsh has offshore energy exploration leases from Vietnam.
The FIPC conference followed Modi’s visit in March to three Indian Ocean island states—Seychelles, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka. These are all countries where no Indian prime minister had travelled for decades but where China has spent billions of dollars in the recent period.
The Modi government is also seeking to expand India’s ties in Africa with a visit by foreign minister Sushma Swaraj to South Africa in May. Modi’s focus on east Africa and the Indian Ocean had involved reviving traditional relations with these countries, which have significant populations of Indian origin.
But the intent with the Pacific Islands is unprecedented. Fiji is central to the FIPIC grouping. Fiji, where ethnic Indians form almost half the total population, was previously India’s sole interest in the Pacific. New Delhi twice broke off diplomatic ties with Fiji after military coups which targeted the Indian community. Indian actions had only pushed Fiji’s military rulers closer to China. In 2006, after a third military coup, India refrained from criticising Fiji, and subsequently followed Washington’s lead in re-engaging with the regime.
India’s push into the Pacific so far has the tacit support, not only of Washington, but also its cricket allies Australia and New Zealand. Indian officials claim that during bilateral discussions, Australia and New Zealand have voiced their concerns over China’s expanding influence and have sought to draw New Delhi into a full regional anti-China alliance.
India under Modi seems to fall prey to military counseling, totally and all foreign tours being undertaken by Modi are strictly in line with the military push for reaching out to both world powers and small nations in order for ensuring a veto seat on the discredited UNSC to share dais with big powers for controlling world and its resources.
Following the summit, Fijian Prime Minister and former military strongman Frank Bainimarama declared that the Pacific states did not want to be “exploited” by other countries—a signal that Fiji intends continuing doing business with China.
By insisting they would not allow to be used in the geopolitics of “big powers” in the region, the Pacific Islands leaders have made their mind loud and clear.
India cannot afford to miss the point.
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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal Blog 