Reach out to the other coast of Indo-Pacific

Be it at the Quad meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, or Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, India is showing its commitment to a free, open, rules-based order. Modi’s visit to Papua New Guinea, the first-ever by an Indian PM, to attend the summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), a partnership with 14 island nations, must be seen as a larger part of this engagement. Despite a sizeable population of Indian origin, New Delhi’s dealings with Pacific island states had been limited. Modi’s visit to Fiji, a visit by an Indian PM after 33 years, and the launch of FIPIC in 2014 changed that.

India has provided financial support, helped with capacity building through the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). However, a sustained political engagement and partnership has been lacking – the leader-level FIPIC meet was last held in 2015. India’s role as a flag bearer of the global south dovetails with its leadership in climate action. Therefore, engagement with Pacific island nations needs to be seen as the other ‘coast’ of New Delhi’s Indo-Pacific rubric as a whole.

For India to take on a more active role in this expanded Indo-Pacific, it has to rely on an out-of-the-box approach. Traditional foreign policy priorities will not serve when it comes to these small island nations existentially threatened by global warming. What gives India the edge over other countries is its partnership approach, building human and physical capacity with a focus on climate change and adaptation, clean energy, and capacity building when supplemented with historical ties.