PM Modi in Papua New Guinea: Why the island country matters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a busy, busy man. After his visit to Japan’s Hiroshima for the G-7 meet where he rubbed shoulders with world leaders and US president Joe Biden jokingly asked him for his autograph, the Indian prime minister made his way to Papua New Guinea for the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), a grouping of India and 14 Pacific Island countries.

Modi has been a popular and well-liked world leader and that was evident once again on Sunday when he was greeted at the airport by his counterpart James Marape, who in a surprise move touched his feet. Notably, Papua New Guinea doesn’t usually give a ceremonial welcome for any leader visiting the country after sunset.

This is Modi’s first time to Papua New Guinea as well as the first visit by an Indian prime minister to the island.

On Monday morning, Modi held talks with his Papua New Guinea counterpart James Marape and the island nation’s Governor-General Bob Dadae separately on a range of issues, including strengthening partnerships in multiple sectors, climate action as well as promoting people-to-people ties.

As Modi continues his outreach to Pacific Island countries, let’s take a closer look at Papua New Guinea and why the visit is significant.

About Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea stretches from just south of the equator to the Torres Strait, which separates New Guinea from Cape York Peninsula to the south, the northernmost extension of Australia. It is the world’s third largest island country, with an area of 4,62,840 square kilometres – somewhat smaller than Spain, or slightly larger than California.

After being ruled by external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea established sovereignty in 1975 and became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1975 with Elizabeth II as queen. It also became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations in its own right.

It is said that the first European visitor may have been Jorge de Meneses, who possibly landed on the island in 1526–27 while en route to the Moluccas. The first European attempt at colonisation was made in 1793 by Lieutenant John Hayes, a British naval officer, near Manokwari, now in Papua province, Indonesia.

Today, Papua New Guinea is one of the most unexplored countries on the planet; however, it offers stunning scenery, making a must-see for nature lovers. The island country is one of 17 “mega-diverse” countries globally. It contains the world’s third largest rainforest, more than 700 bird species, and 45,000km of coral reefs. But travelling to this place isn’t the easiest and it continues to be a land where modern luxuries like electricity and running water are still not readily available to all.

Papua New Guinea is linguistically one of the most diverse nations in the world. There are over 852 distinct languages spoken, and each of these communities has distinct ethnic groups with their own cultures and customs.

With 600 islands and terrain that is geographically isolated by volcanoes and mountains, many communities have evolved in total isolation from each other and share few similarities. The bulk of these communities are thousands of years old and have survived colonisation and other significant pressures to maintain their traditional cultures and languages – a testament to the huge resilience and tenacity of these communities.

According to the 2011 census, the island country was home to 7.2 million people – where majority of them practice Christianity. Interestingly, the majority of the country’s population still lives in rural areas.

When it comes to the economy of the country, agricultural production, most of it from subsistence farming, accounts for about one-third of the country’s gross domestic product. In the 1970s, major mineral discoveries transformed the economy of Papua New Guinea from one dependent on tropical crops to one based on minerals for most of its exports. Today, petroleum gas, copper and gold are most exported from Papua New Guinea.

India and Papua New Guinea

India has diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea since 1975 when the island attained independence from Australia. India’s mission in Papua New Guinea was opened at Port Moresby in 1996 whereas Papua New Guinea opened its mission in Delhi in 2006.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, there are about 3,000 Indians in PNG, out of which about 2,000 are working at projects in LNG sector. Others include chartered accountants, university professors, school teachers, doctors, IT and finance professionals, etc.

Modi’s visit to Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding the third summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), a grouping of India and 14 Pacific Island countries. FIPIC as a grouping began in 2014 in Fiji, with New Delhi aiming to establish a presence in the Pacific Island countries. The second such meet was held in 2015 in India’s Jaipur.

In the third edition of the meet, Modi said that India believes in multilateralism and supports a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. Speaking at the forum, he said, the Pacific island nations are “large ocean countries and not small island states”. According to an ANI news report, Modi stated: “India is proud to be your development partner. You can count on India as a reliable partner. We are ready to share our experiences and capabilities with you without hesitation. We believe in multilateralism and support a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.”

The FIPIC comes at a crucial time. New Delhi is attempting to counter China’s growing footprint in the Pacific. As retired navy chief Arun Prakash told VOA, “These places are very strategic if you want to make a naval base or a friendly port or friendly airstrip and they also have vast ocean resources. The main worry for Western countries and India is that several of these countries are a void and China tends to walk into voids and fill them up.”

China has been extending its footprint in the region through its Belt and Road initiative; in 2022, Beijing signed a security deal with the Solomon Islands and in March it won a contract to redevelop the port in its capital city, Honiara.

Moreover, Papua New Guinea has been showing a tilt towards China – a very big concern for the Quad countries of Australia, India, the US and Japan. In November 2022, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister James Marape met China’s Xi Jinping in Bangkok in which Beijing said both countries are “good friends, good partners and good brothers”. Marape has also been invited by the Chinese to visit Beijing for a ‘State Visit’ and the invitation was extended to him by China’s special envoy to the Pacific Qian Bo last month.

The hope is that Modi’s visit will be able to redirect Papua New Guinea’s attention and also establish New Delhi as an emerging global power.

However, some analysts believe that India’s bid to build influence in the Pacific Island countries will be limited as it can’t match China’s resources. “If you call yourself an Indo-Pacific power and are part of the Quad grouping, you must make some outreach to the Pacific also. But whether it is within our capabilities to sustain ourselves that far out in the Pacific is a question mark. We don’t have such deep pockets and our navy is also relatively small,” Prakash told VOA News.

With inputs from agencies

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