India reaffirms its steadily growing commitment to the South Pacific – a vision that converges with New Zealand's own strategic goals in the region – by committing itself generously with developmental aspirations of the people in the region in the recently concluded India-Pacific Islands Sustainable Development Conference held in Suva, Fiji.
At the conference, India provided $(FJD) 3.6million towards the Fiji government’s Micro and Small Business grant scheme. About 923 people had received individual grants at the Albert Park Pavilion and Ground in Suva.
The two-day conference held on May 25-26 was organised under the framework of the Forum for India Pacific Islands Co-operation (FIPIC) and was hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs, India, in Suva. The Acting Prime Minister of Fiji, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, inaugurated the conference.
India's Minister of State for External Affairs, Gen. (Dr.) V K Singh (Retd.) had travelled from New Delhi to host this annual conference – the fourth such conference since its inception in 2014 – when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken the initiative to commit India seriously in the region.
The first FIPIC summit was held at the level of Heads of Government in November 2014 in Suva, which was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, followed by the FIPIC-II summit held in August 2015, in Jaipur, India.
India's commitment and seriousness toward the South Pacific region are evident from the 50-strong delegation that arrived from India along with the Minister.
The fact that Indian High Commissioner to New Zealand, Sanjeev Kohli, also attended the two-day conference in Suva demonstrates India's larger strategic vision for the South Pacific region, in which New Zealand is an influential player with largely converging goals of development, political stability and prosperity.
The conference focused on issues such as the blue economy, adaptation-mitigation practices for climate change, disaster preparedness, health, the International Solar Alliance as well as finding practical solutions to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) implementation.
Sustainable development through knowledge sharing and capacity building
While welcoming the high-profile delegations from 14 Pacific Island Countries, Gen V K Singh reaffirmed India’s commitment to strengthening and taking forward its partnership with the Pacific Island Nations to take concrete action to create a sustainable world.
"The Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) marks yet another crucial step in India's pioneering initiative in engaging with the Pacific Island Countries (PICs)."
"The conference will see an enhanced exchange of high-impact actionable ideas that will boost the blue economy in the Indo-Pacific region," General Singh said.
India's premier research institute The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) that works in the area of energy, environment and sustainable development, was the key knowledge partner in this conference.
Other key partners at the conference include National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF).
The Minister stressed on the need to join hands through knowledge sharing, technology sharing and capacity building to minimise the serious impact of natural hazards, limiting human and economic loss.
Speaking at the conference, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, Attorney General and Minister for Economy, Public Enterprises, Civil Service and Communications, Republic of Fiji, expressed his gratitude to the Government of India for its support and contribution to Fiji’s presidency of the COP-23. He reaffirmed that the creation of FIPIC in 2014 had resulted in closer ties between India and the Pacific Islands nations, giving people a chance to better their lives.
India and New Zealand growing strategic convergence in South Pacific
Traditionally, New Zealand has played a leadership role in the South Pacific region with the major emphasis on development and political stability of the region.
The Pacific Islands Forum – the region's premier regional political body – held its first meeting in Wellington in August 1971, attended by representatives from Nauru, Western Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand.
The regional forum has faced many crises in the first two decades of the twenty-first century including the coup in Fiji in December 2006 which led to Fiji's suspension from the Forum and a breakdown in the relationship between New Zealand and Fiji.
It was only in 2016 when New Zealand Prime Minister John Key took an initiative to break the ice between New Zealand and Fiji and visited the island nation after which Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama paid a return visit that relations began to be mended.
It is important to note that crises in the Pacific Islands Forum in the last two decades have largely restrained, New Zealand's programmes to promote growth and development in the region.
In the last few years of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's active "Act East Policy," India has elevated its profile in the region with emphasis on knowledge and capability sharing with the island nations of the South Pacific toward the goal of development – a mutually shared strategic concern with New Zealand.
Speaking with Indian Weekender about India's overarching vision in the South Pacific island nations, Indian High Commission to New Zealand Sanjeev Kohli said: "The Minister's visit was an opportunity for a purposeful interaction with our friends from all the Pacific Island countries.
"The main focus was on the themes that are relevant to sustainable and comprehensive growth in these countries.
"India wants to share resources and experience in adding resilience to their efforts to cope with challenges faced by these countries.
"Our effort is to help them build capacities through focussed programmes in areas such as climate change, renewable sources of energy, disaster management, healthcare, innovative financing, information technology and marine economy," Mr Kohli added.
"We strive to provide expression to the concerns and aspirations of the island countries of the South Pacific at international platforms," Mr Kohli said.
Meanwhile, India's visiting Minister Gen. Singh also announced that India would contribute US$ 1 million (NZ$1.41million) to Fiji’s Trust Fund for their Presidency of COP-23 to be held in November 2017.
Earlier, New Zealand Government had through a press statement on May 20 announced that they would be providing $NZ1.3 million in support of Fiji’s presidency for COP23.
Clearly, there are enough strategic convergences between New Zealand and India in the South Pacific region to merit a serious and sustained engagement between the two countries.
It is imperative for the two countries to enhance their bilateral engagement purely from a geopolitical perspective and away from the jargons of FTA and NSG that have recently come to dominate the script of the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
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