Ever since the Ukraine conflict broke out, the small countries in the Pacific region have been consumed by its wildfires. Those nations have to pay a lot for food, fuel and electricity. The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, said that small countries like his own are being dragged amid the geopolitical games of big countries and expressed this grief to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Marape earnestly appealed to India to show compassion towards the small countries in the Pacific and lead those nations and ensure that their voices get heard on the world stage. ‘I look to you as a leader of the Global South,’ said Prime Minister Marape, adding that all the Pacific Islands will stand with you (India). The demands of the other 13 countries in the Pacific region were no different. This demand made by Prime Minister Marape in the third ‘Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation’ (FIPIC) held in Papua New Guinea has not been given much importance by the media around the world. But the Prime Minister of India is looking at this very seriously and in a concerned manner.
So far, these island countries in the Pacific region have been used by big countries only for their strategic interests. China even prepared to use some of these countries as its military bases. Countries like Australia and Japan realized that their security was threatened due to these moves by China. The attention of America was also drawn to this. After that, these big countries realized that China had trapped these countries in its debt trap. But still, these island countries in the Pacific region are not out of this danger. These island countries have often suffered the consequences of distrusting one big country and trusting another.
In such a situation, the emergence of India on the world stage is giving new confidence to these island countries. This matter came prominently in the FIPIC meeting. These Pacific island countries include Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesian Federated Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Palau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. India had set up FIPIC to support China’s efforts to strategically exploit these 14 countries by increasing cooperation.
After becoming the Prime Minister of India in 2014, Narendra Modi visited Fiji. The Government of India had a definite plan behind it. Prime Minister Modi chose Fiji for his visit as it was necessary to prevent China from trying to establish its dominance over the entire region by dominating the Pacific island countries. Later, India extended a helping hand to these island countries systematically using FIPIC. This collaboration seems to have started to take a wider form now. Papua New Guinea and Fiji have conferred their highest civilian honour on Prime Minister Modi. These 14 island countries have faith in India and are ready to accept the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, which adds a lot to the honour of India.
Prime Minister James Marape declared a national holiday while welcoming Prime Minister Modi. Moreover, PM Modi was welcomed by Prime Minister Marape ceremonially after sunset, breaking the tradition in Papua New Guinea. Not only that, but he also saluted PM Modi and the gesture sought a lot of publicity. Indian analysts said this was not part of bowing down to the leader of a big country but a sense of respect for elders as per Indian tradition. But after this, no one has paid much attention to the plight of the Pacific island countries that Prime Minister Marape presented to Prime Minister Modi. Therefore, the importance of the call made by the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea that Prime Minister Modi should lead the Pacific island countries has increased.
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