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Table of Contents
SOUTH PACIFIC SILK ROADS
•Mains Paper 2: IR – Bilateral, regional & global groupings & agreements involving India &/or affecting India’s interests
OCEANIA
CHINA EXPANDING TO SOUTH PACIFIC
• India is not the only one struggling to cope with China’s Silk Road ambitions
• Down under, Australia and New Zealand are finding that China has begun to undermine their long-standing dominance over the South Pacific
• If India took its primacy in the Subcontinent for granted, so did Canberra and Wellington in the South Pacific
• Now, all three are scrambling to deal with China’s projection of economic and political power into their backyards
HOW IS CHINA A THREAT TO AUSTRALIANEW ZEALAND?
• Beijing has significantly expanded its economic engagement and security diplomacy in the island nations across the Indo-Pacific
• Australia is worried that China is pushing for a military facility in Vanuatu
• Located northeast of Australia, Vanuatu’s population is barely 2,50,000 people, but its 80 islands generate a massive exclusive economic zone
• Canberra recently scuttled a bid by China’s Huawei to build an undersea internet cable between Australia, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
•Recognising the potential dangers of the region being tied into China’s digital silk road, Canberra chose to put up the entire cost of the project estimated at $100 million
•A defence policy review issued in Wellington last month underlined that China’s growing economic and political profile in the South Pacific could unravel the regional order and threaten New Zealand’s security
CHINA’S PROFILE
• All great maritime powers seek forward bases. China’s military base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, is a first for Beijing. It certainly won’t be the last.
• It is not that China had hidden its intentions.
• At the turn of the millennium, China had unveiled an ambitious project on developing its periphery in the far west and south-west.
• The emphasis was on promoting massive connectivity projects within China and then extending them across the border into the neighbouring countries.
• Soon after, Beijing unveiled a bold naval strategy that was in tune with China’s emergence as the world’s second-largest economy.
AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND PARTNERING TO COMBAT CHINA
•Australia and New Zealand are preparing to sign a wide-ranging security pact with South Pacific nations at a summit with the leaders of the islands in Nauru in September
• Canberra and Wellington are also upgrading their national surveillance capabilities in the South Pacific
OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIA ?
• India’s resources will always be limited but it can increase its impact in the region through collaboration with its partner countries like Australia, France, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand and the US — all of whom have great stakes in the South Pacific
• Promoting practical cooperation with these nations could be far more productive than Delhi’s theological discussions about the quad, the Indo-Pacific and the BRI
APEC PAPUA NEW GUINEA 2018
• APEC Papua New Guinea 2018 is the year-long hosting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Papua New Guinea.
• It wil be the first time Papua New Guinea is hosting the APEC meetings.
• Australia is providing a quarter to a third of the cost to host the meetings and will also help with logistics and security.
FORUM FOR INDIA–PACIFIC ISLANDS COOPERATION
• Forum for India-Pacific Islands cooperation (FIPIC) is a multinational grouping developed in 2014 for cooperation between India and 14 Pacific Islands nations which include Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
• All heads of state or heads of government of the above countries met in Suva, Fiji in November 2014 for the first time where the annual summit was conceptualised.
FORUM FOR INDIA–PACIFIC ISLANDS COOPERATION
• Pacific leaders have expressed their concerns over climate change and its effect on their respective counties. India also assured them to voice their concerns and appropriate measures at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris.
• In return all the 14 visiting head of state/government reiterated their support to India’s bid for a permanent memberships at the reformed United Nations Security Council.
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