Pacific Island Forum

1. Background

• This initiative was launched amid China’s aggressive push of increasing its influence in the Pacific.
• Under the new initiative, countries will involve in “effective and efficient cooperation” with small island nations of the region.
• The geostrategic competition in the Pacific region has intensified of late after China’s scope of increasing footprint in the region was made clear by signing a common cooperation agreement with 10 Pacific countries.
• The initiative members will “elevate Pacific regionalism”, and forge stronger ties with the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

2. About the pacific island forum

• The Pacific Islands Forum is the region’s premier political and economic policy organization.
• Founded in 1971, it comprises 18 members: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

3. Other steps were taken by the US and its allies to counter China

• IPEF: Before the launch of Partners in the Blue Pacific Initiative, the US and its partners had launched the “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF)”. It is a trade-boosting framework, launched in association with 13 member countries; namely, Brunei, India, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Fiji.
• PGII: G7 announced the “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII)” on June 27, 2022, to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It promised USD 600 billion to fund development projects across low and middle-income countries.

4. Significance

• Out of 10 busiest seaports, 9 are in this region only. 60 per cent of the global maritime trade transits through Asia, with around one-third passing through the South China Sea alone.
• Pacific region is strategically significant because it is home to the world’s largest democracy (India), the most populous country (China), and the largest Muslim-majority country (Indonesia).

5. About Partners in the Blue Pacific initiative

• The Partners in the Blue Pacific Initiative is a five-nation “informal mechanism”, launched for supporting Pacific islands and for boosting economic and diplomatic ties in the region. 
• This initiative was announced on June 24, 2022. 
• It seeks to enhance “prosperity, resilience, and security” in the Pacific by closer cooperation among the member nations. 
• Member countries would cooperate in areas including climate crisis, transportation, connectivity, health, maritime security & protection, prosperity and education

6. China's approach towards international waters

• The Chinese regime claims that it has historical ownership over nearly the entire region, which gives it the right to manufacture islands, declare defensive perimeters around its artificial islands, and chase ships from other nations out of the South China Sea. 
• The International Court of Arbitration rejected the claim in 2016.
• China considers disputes in the South China Sea as territorial disputes and therefore considers that UNCLOS does not have a locus standi to pass the judgment over disputes.
• China’s increasingly active presence in the Indian Ocean region as well as its efforts to expand geopolitical reach in Asia and beyond by the use of trade and military Demand rule-based order to secure India’s interests and free trade. 
• In the present time, the control of sea lanes and ports would be the game.