India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

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sanman
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India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by sanman »

India is now looking farther east, to the Pacific Islands for engagement, whether strategic, economic, cultural, etc.








SSridhar
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by SSridhar »

India is also enhancing its defence cooperation with Papua New Guinea (PNG) for which country it offered a coastal surveillance radar system (just as in the case of Maldives) during the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), held in Jaipur in August 2015. Since PNG is planning to raise its small defence forces (from 1900 personnel to 5000 by c. 2017 and later to 10000 by c. 2030), and since it is also planning to have a significant component of naval strength, it offers India enough scope to offer equipment and training to that country.
VinodTK
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by VinodTK »

Papua New Guinea PM James Marape touches PM Modi's feet
The Times Of India
NEW DELHI: In an exemplary gesture of respect, Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape touched the feet of PM Narendra Modi, who arrived in the island nation on Sunday.
As he alighted from the aircraft, PM Modi was greeted by Marape who then bent down to touch his feet.
Papua New Guinea has a tradition of not welcoming anyone post sunset but PM Modi was given a gun salute, a red carpet welcome and was personally welcomed by Marape.
PM Modi is in Papua New Guinea to host the third summit of the Forum for India–Pacific Islands Cooperation on May 22, jointly with his counterpart James Marape.

The PM's visit to Papua New Guinea on the second leg of his three-nation tour is the first ever by any Indian prime minister.
He arrived here from Japan where he attended the summit of the G7 advanced economies and held bilateral meetings with several world leaders.

"I am grateful that all 14 Pacific Island Countries (PIC) have accepted the invitation to attend this important summit (FIPIC)," PM Modi had said earlier.
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Cyrano
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Cyrano »

In case any twitter idiots make crass comments on the video of the above which is circulating, you can use the below:

This gesture of bowing to touch a person's feet, has been part of Hindu culture since time immemorial. Its called Charan Sparsh, and is usually reserved for parents, teachers and elders revered for their wisdom and benevolence. Those who receive this mark of utmost respect raise the person with blessings and often a warm hug. Thats what has happened.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

Wow!
Papua New Guinea PM James Marape's charan sparsh of Indian PM Modi as he arrives in the Pacific country. Touching someone's feet is a traditional Indian gesture of respect and humility...
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chetak
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by chetak »

Amber ji,

when no one else was there for PNG, India did not discriminate


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Because of this….


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This happened....

viaVivek Ranjan Agnihotri@vivekagnihotri
sanman
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by sanman »



There's a lot that's familiar here, in that it resembles any one of Modi's visits to various Indian communities, observing folkdances, etc.
KL Dubey
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by KL Dubey »

On that topic, the latest on Fiji (which has a 38% Indian population):

https://swarajyamag.com/insta/fiji-pm-a ... -community
https://indiannewslink.co.nz/a-place-of ... s-in-fiji/

...and it appears the Fijians have pushed back on the PRC's shenanigans:

https://asiatimes.com/2023/04/fiji-snub ... rom-china/
https://www.voanews.com/a/fiji-investig ... 38652.html
disha
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by disha »

Thanks Sanmanji for starting this thread.

Fiji. In 1987 due to US shenanigans, Sitiveni Babuka was kicking Indians out. Indo-fijians were uprooted and sent all over the world, primarily to Aus and US and they made important contributions to the economy of the countries in which they took refuge. But they were uprooted from their second homes and in the 3rd generation they became migrants again.

Just a decade prior, Indians were pushed out of Uganda. Two years later, in their own country Kashmiri pandits were genocided. All under the eyes of the west.

36 years later, and almost two generations hence Sitiveni Babuka realizes that he was both a racist and a bigot. And he ended up climbing up a nettle vine on the urgings of the West (US/Aus/UK). How much it stung.

Even in 2015, several pacific islands were jumping up and down and going with Cheen as mai-baap. The epochal change was Covid. Several of the pacific islands (like Fiji & Solomon islands) were left sucking their own thumb (albeit their own thumb was stuck up their @r$e). The cheen mai-baap sarkar came, not to offer any help from Covid (created by Cheen), but to collect its debt. The West came. Not to offer any solution for disaster, a disaster which was primarily creation of West's own greed, the ocean warming and rising oceans, but to treat them as vermins that need to be removed from their islands at best or tolerated at worst, like the native chagosians or the residents of the bikini island. For their resources and their potential utility as bases.

And post covid, they were left to fend for themselves in the cold, high inflation economic devastation.

India came and offered them succor, solace and solutions

There were several here and in India who complained that why India is sending vaccines to Pacific Islands. They were forgotten. It was operation Maitri that saved their very lives. And while the west saw them as inconsequential money pit and the vaunted Cheeni vaccines did not work, the Sushrutas of India saved them.

When they are facing economic uncertainities, It is India which is offering them real economic help. India without any colonial or ww2 hangover or wanting to spread its hegemony is treating them as one of their own and fighting for them and along with them. When Modi speaks of high fertilizer cost, energy, access to markets etc, he is speaking not just for India but for the developing world and for the pacific islanders.

India is offering them solutions. Disaster management and resource management. Working with them to create a solar alliance. And pappus in India chide Modi and use the word "vishwaguru" derisively.

Today Papua New Guinea won the hearts of Indians by a simple but a very profound gesture. Those few moments, few seconds will go down in history. Here India walked in as a friend and an ally and won the hearts and minds of the pacific islanders. Some had to say sorry and ask for forgiveness for their past misdeeds and some just bowed down out of deep respect.

I consider this as the Battle of the Wake Island. Won.

Cheenis and their western sorosites will rue and burn. They will double their efforts a.la Pappu to deride, denigrate and devastate India.

Battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa is yet to come.

PS: I was watching the news in loop and contemplating above thoughts. If the above is chaotic, pondering and rhetorical, please forgive me.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by sanman »

disha
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by disha »

In continuation of above:

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-ne ... 04800.html
James Marape said, “We are victims of global powerplay... You (PM Modi) are the leader of Global South."

Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape told PM Narendra Modi that the Pacific Islands nations considers him as the leader of the Global South and will rally behind India's leadership at international forums. "
What has happened is earth shaking.

Forum members please note:

1. The Pacific islands are some 18 countries and approx. 300000 square miles mostly in NZ and PNG sit at critical international maritime routes.

2. They have been colonized, brutalized, and torn violently in the last 400 years and their native populations decimated. They need help protecting their culture and way of life. Something every indic on this forum understands. Since as an indic (non-abrahmic or even certain denominations of abrahamic) they are under constant threat for last 1000 years in a pincer attack.

2a. For Desis, they do not have to go too far. They just have to connect to Hawaii. I have been saying several times that the Hindus need to help the Hawaiians by increasing their presence in Hawaii and countering the Jesuits.

With the current gesture in PNG, Polynesians (Micronesians, native Pacific islanders) have become our brothers. We are the Indo in the indo-pacific, and the table has turned equal among Indo-Pacific (Japan, US, India and Aus) countries.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Cyrano »

Excellent posts Disha ji !
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by IndraD »

where is the like button!
sanman
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by sanman »

Great comments, disha and others.

Which are the main and most promising areas of cooperation?

These are the ones I can see:

- Medical and health resources
- Education
- Infotech
- Tourism

While I've seen various Indian movies filmed in Western locations (Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, etc) and also in Southeast Asia, I've yet to see anything filmed in these beautiful Pacific islands, which have so much natural beauty and scenery to offer.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by chetak »

Fiji honours Indian PM Modi with the highest honour of the country: Companion of the Order of Fiji


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Cyrano
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Cyrano »

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-22/ ... /102378862

United States and Papua New Guinea strengthen defence ties with new security agreement, details still to be made public

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sanman
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by sanman »

sanman
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by sanman »

ramana
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by ramana »

Sanman thanks for starting the thread on India and the Pacific Islands.

Disha very good thoughts almost in line with mine.

I feel India's connection with Pacific Islands started long before, from protohistoric migrations.
And the connection is being revived.
In the 1970s my friends used to go to Fiji islands to escape Emergency!
In Fremont, there is a puja store run by a Fiji woman that is so authentic!
It was Dr SJS under NaMo who laid out the roadmap for rebuilding the connections.

This one trip of NaMo is similar to the trip to Mongolia and is India's own Island strategy.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by ramana »

Sanman. Naval refuelling stations in the South Pacific.

If you see the US strategy, they want India to be confined to the North Indian Ocean i.e. West of India to East Africa.
They are upset with ties to Mauritius and Reunion Island.

Now India is reaching out into South Pacific.
Genetically they are our people.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by KL Dubey »

ramana wrote:Sanman. Naval refuelling stations in the South Pacific.

If you see the US strategy, they want India to be confined to the North Indian Ocean i.e. West of India to East Africa.
They are upset with ties to Mauritius and Reunion Island.

Now India is reaching out into South Pacific.
Genetically they are our people.
In Modi's world view (and of those before him), Akhand Bharat extends from arabia to the pacific ocean and from tibet to antarctica. All these are our peoples (be as they may in various conditions). The outreach and (re-)building of ties has generally followed this pattern, not only within the current political borders of Bharat but well outside.

https://www.indiatoday.in/opinion-colum ... 2023-04-06

Whoever else may happen to have a legitimate interest in this region will also be met with respect as much as possible/deserved. In Mauritius and Reunion areas Bharat has several partners including the French. Ultimately the western influence in these regions will fade as Akhand Bharat becomes strong and consolidated. And nobody will want to see Jinping's ObOr and C-Pec.

A singular focus/obsession with "the US and its strategy" is not necessary.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by sanman »

Cyrano
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Cyrano »

KL Dubey wrote: A singular focus/obsession with "the US and its strategy" is not necessary.
Absolutely ! We are US and EU focussed because of the composition of BRF members itself, and because these 2 have a preponderant influence. But as India spreads its wings and reaches out wider and wider more centres of interest will become important.

NaMo certainly deserves huge respect for keeping his head above the saturation that US & EU can create and looking at the world as concentric circles radiating out with India at the center, and pursue policies accordingly.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by chetak »

Just to keep things in perspective

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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Manish_P »

Cyrano wrote:.. looking at the world as concentric circles radiating out with India at the center, and pursue policies accordingly.
That's a beautiful way of describing India's approach towards it's foreign policy.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Cyrano »

Shri APG Abdul Kalam ji also had the same vision, but thats another kind of diplomacy ;)
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Manish_P »

Our ancient prayers, traditions and culture all mention the importance of radiation of knowledge, consciousness (and other things) all originating from the core within, to light up the surroundings and drive away the darkness.. :wink:

So it's just fine sir.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by ramana »

India already has good relations in Western South America with countries like Chile, Peru etc.
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Re: India & Pacific Islands Engagement Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape, known only by a handful in India before, instantly became viral in the Asian country after giving a “traditional” and rousing welcome to his counterpart Narendra Modi, who was the first Indian leader to visit the Pacific country.
Q: You broke the protocol to receive Indian PM Modi and welcomed him in a traditional manner, how did that happen?

Marape: We come from a society where we respect elders. This is not an everyday welcome that a guest receives. It’s an ancient culture which believes in showing respect to elders and PM Modi is a senior person and heads the biggest democracy by population. He could have ignored PNG, but he visited the island nation. Thus, I had to receive him personally.

Q: Your traditional welcome went viral and many Indians appreciated it.

Marape: Well, he is the leader of the people and he is a spiritual person. In our culture, giving respect to an elder is important and he is a senior statesman and not just a leader.
Link: Interview: Had to show respect to leader of biggest democracy: Papua New Guinea PM Marape on touching Modi’s feet
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