Ten days, three countries, 40 world leaders. The world is wooing Narendra Modi more than Modi is wooing the world. "Once the outcast, Modi arrived at the G20 on Friday as the political rock star of the summit,” noted The Guardian, "As the newly minted prime minister of the largest democracy the world has ever known, the 64-year-old is the man the other leaders are seeking out this week."
Everybody wants to be pally with the “nationalist" leader of the world’s third largest economy. Even the Kingdom of Tonga. Not that Modi is ignoring the Kingdom of Tonga.
In Fiji, prime minister Modi will hold a summit of the leaders of 14 Pacific Island nations. These include Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Nauru, Palau, Niue, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Samoa, Micronesia, Fiji and Tonga. But The Tonga Herald wants to know why Modi isn’t visiting Tonga itself.
An archipelago of 176 islands whose collective surface area and population are less than half of Delhi, Tonga is part of the strategically important Pacific Islands who have been strategically close to the United States but are today economically better integrated with China. Focusing attention on this region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is stepping up his policy of engaging with countries where China has also focused its attention. From The Tonga Herald, here are five reasons why Modi must visit Tonga.
1. Counter China: "In light of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Fiji just two days after Modi, a stopover would show added commitment to the region as a whole and be opportune for reviving relations…In Tonga, increasingly (like most places), the Asian century is just becoming a China century. But the binary ‘billionaires’ of Asia, in any circumstance, cannot ignore India.”
2. Encourage democracy: "Having transitioned from Monarchical rule to Monarchical reign, with a more democratically elected government, Tonga is still ahead in pioneering strategic relationships with the wider global community. Modi’s democratic mandate naturally complements this.”
3. Securing the oceans: "Although the South Pacific might seem at the fringes of Indian strategic purview, the mounting importance of the emerging Indo-Pacific, which puts the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean together as interlinked strategic regions critical for power projection, only serves to accentuate the criticality of this relationship… Old and new powers are looking again at command of the seas as a means of strategic power projection and security.”
4. Don’t see us through Australia: "Currently, India’s relations with the South Pacific are largely ‘managed’ via Australia, and Fiji. Australia, because it thinks it can impose ‘strategic denial’ against India in the region even though the region was nurtured and has always benefited from Indian efforts. Although the thawing of nuclear relations between India and Australia is a positive step, there cannot be certainty until India forges its own relations with the nations of the South Pacific. Increasingly, Australia’s security situation is being challenged by a range of factors, including its own endemic Islamic terrorism."
5. You may need us when Fijian Indians are in trouble: "Another major challenge is that India seems to rely on its Fijian diaspora to do its diplomacy in the region. However some might see this approach as a continuation of the colonial system. Additionally, Fiji’s political and military upheavals have mostly stemmed out of the racial divide between the indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. When the supposed vanguard of interests itself becomes the source of greater problems, it is natural to look further afield for more effective outposts. For the sake of a new Indo-Pacific economic and security architecture, there needs to be a breakthrough for Indian relations in the South Pacific.”
The Tonga Herald even recounted how other important world leaders take the archipelago-kingdom seriously: "A short transit was done by the British Queen in the 1950s, Smt Indira Gandhi in the 1980s, and even the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset. A visit by the most popular Prime Minister in Indian post-independence history, would accomplish wonders for India-PIC relations, and show India is in the Pacific for more than just Fiji."
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Everybody wants to be pally with the “nationalist" leader of the world’s third largest economy. Even the Kingdom of Tonga. Not that Modi is ignoring the Kingdom of Tonga.
In Fiji, prime minister Modi will hold a summit of the leaders of 14 Pacific Island nations. These include Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Nauru, Palau, Niue, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Samoa, Micronesia, Fiji and Tonga. But The Tonga Herald wants to know why Modi isn’t visiting Tonga itself.
An archipelago of 176 islands whose collective surface area and population are less than half of Delhi, Tonga is part of the strategically important Pacific Islands who have been strategically close to the United States but are today economically better integrated with China. Focusing attention on this region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is stepping up his policy of engaging with countries where China has also focused its attention. From The Tonga Herald, here are five reasons why Modi must visit Tonga.
1. Counter China: "In light of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Fiji just two days after Modi, a stopover would show added commitment to the region as a whole and be opportune for reviving relations…In Tonga, increasingly (like most places), the Asian century is just becoming a China century. But the binary ‘billionaires’ of Asia, in any circumstance, cannot ignore India.”
2. Encourage democracy: "Having transitioned from Monarchical rule to Monarchical reign, with a more democratically elected government, Tonga is still ahead in pioneering strategic relationships with the wider global community. Modi’s democratic mandate naturally complements this.”
3. Securing the oceans: "Although the South Pacific might seem at the fringes of Indian strategic purview, the mounting importance of the emerging Indo-Pacific, which puts the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean together as interlinked strategic regions critical for power projection, only serves to accentuate the criticality of this relationship… Old and new powers are looking again at command of the seas as a means of strategic power projection and security.”
4. Don’t see us through Australia: "Currently, India’s relations with the South Pacific are largely ‘managed’ via Australia, and Fiji. Australia, because it thinks it can impose ‘strategic denial’ against India in the region even though the region was nurtured and has always benefited from Indian efforts. Although the thawing of nuclear relations between India and Australia is a positive step, there cannot be certainty until India forges its own relations with the nations of the South Pacific. Increasingly, Australia’s security situation is being challenged by a range of factors, including its own endemic Islamic terrorism."
5. You may need us when Fijian Indians are in trouble: "Another major challenge is that India seems to rely on its Fijian diaspora to do its diplomacy in the region. However some might see this approach as a continuation of the colonial system. Additionally, Fiji’s political and military upheavals have mostly stemmed out of the racial divide between the indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. When the supposed vanguard of interests itself becomes the source of greater problems, it is natural to look further afield for more effective outposts. For the sake of a new Indo-Pacific economic and security architecture, there needs to be a breakthrough for Indian relations in the South Pacific.”
The Tonga Herald even recounted how other important world leaders take the archipelago-kingdom seriously: "A short transit was done by the British Queen in the 1950s, Smt Indira Gandhi in the 1980s, and even the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset. A visit by the most popular Prime Minister in Indian post-independence history, would accomplish wonders for India-PIC relations, and show India is in the Pacific for more than just Fiji."
