“I told him the other day somebody is not very happy with you but then you are big enough to weather those discomforts,” Fiji’s visiting Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka recalled telling Prime Minister Modi, while addressing the Indian Council of World Affairs on Wednesday.
He did not say what Modi told him, but with Trump’s 50% tariffs against India kicking in on Wednesday, it’s clear what Rabuka was hinting: that the Global South is closely watching how this confrontation between the US and India will evolve at a time when richer, economically stronger countries like South Korea, Japan and even the EU have caved in to the US president’s demands.
Rabuka confessed he has had no personal interaction with Trump, but the man was upending the decades old international order.
“We live in a time when there is growing economic uncertainty throughout the world. The global rules based international order have been tested to its limits and multilateralism is eroding in the face of prolonged conflicts and humanitarian catastrophes.”
In the region where he comes from, Rabuka pointed to climate change, rising sea levels, increasingly severe weather systems and the changing ecosystem, as issues they were facing.
Rabuka had proposed the Ocean of Peace concept where “strategic competition is managed, where stability is a touchstone of regional relationships and where coercion is kept in check.”
He does not believe this can be achieved through force of arms or even police. The way forward requires commitment by the island states of the region to peacefully settle disputes, respect international norms and freedom to determine its own strategic and security quality.
While lauding India’s support for the region through digital solutions, healthcare, renewable energy and so on, he also urged that New Delhi amplify the Pacific region’s concerns at international fora like the UN.
He noted that the draft declaration of the Ocean of Peace had been cleared only last week by the Pacific Leaders Forum. A final round of deliberations will be held next month in Manila, the Philippines, before it is adopted. He was hopeful that the declaration would eliminate strategic competition in the region and ensure a cooperative and stable Pacific.
