NEW DELHI: Obviously rattled by a surprise move during the ‘Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’ or ‘Quad’ meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday that saw the ambitious IPMDA (Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness) and the IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity) being unveiled to counter China, China has decided to hit back with a proposal that plans an economic integration of the island nations of the Southern Pacific.
While the Quad’s IPMDA seeks to seamlessly guard the swath of waters of the Indo-Pacific in a collaborative mode that will have obvious civilian and military applications, the IPEF aims at an economic integration of the countries of the region. And in doing so, China has taken aim at Australia by heeding an old adage often used by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, when he wrote: “The chain is no stronger than its weakest link” (Lenin Collected Works, Volume 24).
Of the four ‘Quad’ members India, Australia, US and Japan, Australia is understood to be the most vulnerable, not just militarily but also because of its dependence on China—China is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner in goods and services while Australia is China’s sixth largest trading partner.
And to deliberate on the plan called the China-Pacific Island “Common Development Vision” (CDV), Chinese foreign minister and state counselor Wang Yi has embarked on a 10-day-long visit from Thursday (May 26) to June 4 to eight south Pacific island nations that include the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.
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Besides these seven nations, Wang and his 20-member delegation are expected to hold virtual meetings with leaders of the Cook Islands, Niue, and the Federated States of Micronesia. China’s expansive deal basically aims to create a ‘policing, security and data communications cooperation’ network with the smaller Pacific island nations.
The plan is to be presented for endorsement at the Second China-Pacific Island Foreign Ministers Meeting in Fiji on May 30. Proposing a China-Pacific Islands Free Trade Area, the draft CDV plan which has been leaked to certain western new agencies, states that the deal aims to “strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the fields of traditional and non-traditional security”.
A news agency quoted the draft report that stated: “China will hold intermediate and high-level police training for Pacific Island countries through bilateral and multilateral means.” The draft report pledges cooperation on data networks, cyber-security, smart customs systems, and for Pacific islands to “take a balanced approach to technological progress, economic development and protection of national security”. The CDV also proposes a ministerial dialogue on law enforcement capacity and police cooperation this year itself with China providing forensic police laboratories.
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The developments are indicative of a new struggle in the southern Pacific island nations' region even as Australian media reported of newly-appointed PM Anthony Albanese and his foreign minister Penny Wong trying to ramp-up official visits to the island nations in the light of the new Chinese push. Wong is expected to meet Fijian PM Frank Bainimarama in Suva, the Fijian capital, on Thursday (May 26).
