India must be there in the Pacific islands

If done right, the relationship between India and the Pacific islands could drive growth, prosperity, and security for the foreseeable decades ahead.

- TEVITA MOTULALO

A OPINION ssuming we don't stumble into nuclear Armageddon in the time leading up to President Trump's inauguration, India and her partners will need to do the gruelling task of shoring up mutual interests and collaborative action.

The seeming anarchy in global management that warrants revisiting the priorities and methods of partnership building. It's not merely about carving out spheres of influence, or regional hegemony. It's about real estate-vantage points of influence. It's the ability to bargain from a position of strength, and the forethought to take the discussion into the adversary's territory rather than, from a losing position, pushing them out from one's own.

THE INDO-PACIFIC That's why it is opportune to revisit the meaning of the Indo-Pacific concept considering India and the Pacific are literally in the name. Who's to say this formulation wasn't intentional from its very beginning? This is a region where peer competitor China seems to be deploying every known trick in the book to secure it for its own. This is not least for the Pacific islands' wealth of high-grade submarine rare earth minerals and other strategic resources, something Indian submarine mining companies would have interests in. Additionally, the region in. Additionally, the region is at the forefront of the corridor of global prosperity and security in the next few decades. Spread along the Equator, they are the most ideal locations for the cyber and ballistic capabilities in the future whether offensive or defensive.