SUVA: Rival suitors India and China step up their courtship of Pacific island nations this week when Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping head to Fiji following the Group of 20 summit in Australia.
Indian Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi will both hold mini summits during their Fiji stopovers, meeting with up to 12 regional leaders as they bid for the support of one of the largest voting blocs in the United Nations.
Sandra Tarte, director of the politics and international affairs program at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, said it is clear India and China want to build strategic ties with the Pacific.
"There is obviously an intention to have bilateral meetings and that's why so many of these other country leaders are here, but from China and India's point of view it's the region that is important and the fact that are 12 votes at the UN," Tarte told AFP.
The Asia-Pacific region has some "strategic relevance and importance, economically, politically and in terms of security," she added
A likely central issue of the talks will be climate change, where low-lying Pacific islands would welcome assistance.
"China and India, they are not just global political and economic powers, but they are contributors to the problem of climate change and the Pacific Island countries are at the receiving end of climate change but do not necessarily contribute to it," Tarte said.
"In the past there has been this deadlock between developed countries and these so-called developing countries on how to approach the issue and whether or not countries like China and India need to make concessions.
"For the small island countries it doesn't matter who makes the concessions as long as they are made."
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