New Delhi: Amid the scramble for influence in the geographically-remote, yet strategically-important Pacific Island Countries (PIC), Republic of Korea (RoK) held the first Korea-Pacific Islands Summit in Seoul on 29-30 May.
The meeting was the third within a week between the PICs and another country.
The US and India had held separate summits with the PICs on 22 May, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-chairing the third summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation hosted by Papua New Guinea.
The Pacific Island Countries comprise 18 nations which are members of the Pacific Islands Forum, including Australia and New Zealand. The other members are Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
At the end of the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit, the nations issued a joint declaration recognising shared universal values, including “freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human rights, including the right to development”.
They further agreed to strengthen both development and security collaboration, including “maritime security, climate security, energy security, cyber security, human security, public health and transnational security”.
Republic of Korea, or South Korea, and the PICs also recognised the common goal to “strengthen a rules-based regional and international order” and noted that peace and stability in the Pacific are “interlinked with global peace and stability”.
The summit comes amid worries about increasing Chinese influence in the Pacific Island Countries.
The Pacific Islands are strategically significant, particularly for maintaining critical logistical supply lines and projection of military force, according to Brookings Institution, a non-profit public policy organisation.
The logistics for maintaining crucial supply routes for the US and its allies in the region would be significantly affected if China is able to establish a military presence in the Pacific Islands.
Brookings Institution calls this possibility a “high-impact risk” for Australia specifically, given that it has defence capabilities to support US-led coalitions.
Srikanth Kondapalli, Dean, School of International Studies, and professor of China studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that China had developed a strategy for the Pacific Ocean in 2009 and started actively engaging in the region, initiating the global rush for influence among the PICs.
“At the 19th National Congress (of the Chinese Communist Party) in 2017, President Xi Jinping outlined a vision for China to occupy a position of global leadership in the world and looked at increasing its power in the second island chain and the island countries of the Indo-Pacific region,” he explained.
Gunjan Singh, Assistant Professor at O.P. Jindal Global University, added that “the China-Solomon Islands security arrangement woke the world to China’s growing influence in the Pacific”.
China signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in April 2022, raising concerns among western nations about potential Chinese military presence in the region.
In May 2022, Beijing attempted to sign a sweeping trade and security agreement with 10 Pacific Island Countries, which failed after there was a lack of consensus among the PICs, a report by Al Jazeera noted.
Then President of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), David Panuelo, in a leaked letter to the leaders of the Pacific Islands, had termed the proposed deal “the single-most-game-changing proposed agreement in the Pacific in any of our lifetimes”.
He added that China was seeking to “acquire access and control of our region, with the result being the fracturing of regional peace, security and stability”.
Panuelo was reported to have written another letter in March this year to FSM leaders highlighting China’s “political warfare and grey zone activity” in the FSM, alleging bribery and support to internal independence movements.
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China’s Indo-Pacific strategy
“China has been looking to increase its influence in the Indo-Pacific, especially in the second island chain, cultivating ties with countries like Kiribati, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands,” said Kondapalli.
Until 2003, China operated a space tracking station in the Pacific island of Kiribati, which was mothballed after Kiribati established relations with Taiwan. China and Kiribati finally restored diplomatic ties in 2019 after Kiribati severed relations with Taipei.
“It is a part of a larger strategy of expanding economic ties with the countries of the Pacific and eventually converting that into political leverage, marginalising Taiwan’s relations in the region, especially through its (China’s) cheque-book diplomacy,” he added.
Kondapalli pointed out that nations like Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands had received concessional loans from China, nearly accounting for a quarter of their total Gross Domestic Product, and about half of their external debt obligations.
In 2019, Reuters reported that Pacific governments owed about $1.3 billion in concessional debt to China and that Vanuatu owed around $130 million to China, about half of its external debt.
“It should also be understood that there exists a significant number of overseas Chinese population in these countries. It has led to internal issues including riots, for which China then offers law and order support to the governments and signs agreements for the same,” Kondapalli added.
For example, the security arrangement between China and the Solomon Islands, according to a leaked draft, allows for the Chinese government to send, “police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces” to the Solomon Islands.
India’s Indo-Pacific strategy
Last month, the third summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation saw PM Modi travel to Papua New Guinea to meet with the leaders of 14 Pacific Island Countries.
“This is the next logical step stemming from India’s Act East Policy,” said Gunjan Singh.
“PM Modi called the Pacific Island Countries ‘our neighbours’, signalling that India is looking beyond just land borders (at) ocean countries as part of the neighbourhood. This is a new aspect of India’s foreign policy,” she added.
New Delhi has looked to engage with the Pacific Islands “by focusing” on a non-military and non-security standpoint, according to Gunjan Singh.
At the 2015 summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation, India had called for a dedicated seat for Small Island Developing States in an expanded United Nations Security Council.
Then in 2019, India announced a $12 million grant to the Pacific Islands Developing States for high impact developmental projects of their choice, in addition to a concessional $150 million line of credit to the group.
“India’s partnership strategies are different from China’s. We treat the partners as equal and development partnerships are focussed on mutual benefit. The focus has been on investment that directly impacts the people in these countries, thereby giving India a good platform to make itself an important stakeholder in the region,” said Gunjan Singh.
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US Indo-Pacific strategy
With the US Indo-Pacific Command, the US has the largest military presence in the region. It has been reported that nearly 30 per cent of Guam (a US island territory in Micronesia) is occupied by the American military.
In February 2022, the US released its ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’ document, stating the Indo-Pacific to be “vital to our security and prosperity”. The document highlighted the intensifying of focus to the region given the “mounting challenges” from China and its “coercive foreign policy”.
Last month, the US signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with Papua New Guinea, as well as a pact to counter illicit transnational maritime activity.
A statement from the US Department of State highlighted how the deal would “increase stability and security in the region”. “The DCA reflects the US commitment to reinvigorate and modernise our democratic partnerships around the world to advance our shared security and prosperity,” it said.
Last month, a joint statement by the leaders of the Quad — India, the US, Australia and Japan — sought for the Indo-Pacific region to be free of domination and highlighted that they would “foster resilience to economic coercion”.
South Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategy
South Korea is the latest country to engage with the PICs. At the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit, the nation laid out an ‘Action Plan for Freedom, Peace and Prosperity in the Pacific’.
Under the plan, South Korea acknowledged its role as a “global pivotal state” that would cooperate with the Pacific Islands to achieve “freedom, peace and prosperity”.
It states that South Korea would customise its own projects with the Pacific Islands, aligning them with the ‘2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent’, focusing on “resilience, reinforcement and revitalisation”.
The action plan highlights specific steps under these three categories that the nation and the PICs would undertake.
South Korea, on its part, would support efforts to strengthen climate and disaster resilience, reinforce the potential of the Pacific through capacity-building, and strengthen partnerships by revitalising connectivity in the post-Covid era.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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