Australia and the United States will look to boost their security ties with Papua New Guinea in the wake of the controversial military pact between China and Solomon Islands.
The agreement to allow Chinese armed forces to protect its Solomons infrastructure, less than 2000 kilometres off the Australian east coast, has sent officials in Washington and Canberra scrambling to shore up their partnerships with nearby Pacific island countries.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2019. Australia has been looking to enhance its security ties with PNG for months.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
It has also dominated the past week of the federal election campaign in Australia with Labor leader Anthony Albanese attacking Prime Minister Scott Morrison for not doing enough to stop the deal and bringing forward an announcement to increase foreign aid spending in the Pacific region.
An American delegation – led by White House Indo-Pacific co-ordinator Kurt Campbell and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel Kritenbrink – over the weekend met with members of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s government for 90 minutes. They also met with leaders and officials in PNG and Fiji.
Kritenbrink said on Tuesday the US wanted to expand security cooperation with PNG, which sits between Solomons and Australia, after meeting with PNG Prime Minister James Marape and defence chiefs. He said officials from both countries will hold further discussions in the coming months.
“There is a desire on both sides to ensure we take concrete steps to expand our security cooperation,” he said during a call with reporters.
Australia has also been looking to enhance its security ties with PNG for months, senior government sources confirmed.
Morrison on Sunday said the prospect of having a Chinese military base in Solomon Islands was a “red line”. On Tuesday, he said that was simply stating the policy of the US.
Asked if he was comfortable with the “red line” remark and whether he would rule out the US taking military action if China established a base in Solomon Islands, Kritenbrink said he did not want to speculate.
“We’ve indicated that should those events come to pass that the US would respond accordingly, and I think it’s best if I leave it at that and not speculate on what that may or may not [be],” Kritenbrink said.
Labor announced on Tuesday it would increase foreign aid to the Pacific by $525 million over four years as well as establish a new “Pacific Engagement visa” designed to boost permanent migration to Australia from the region.
The new visa would allow 3000 people from the region to migrate to Australia annually, boosting the Pacific diaspora within the country.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said the funding boost would “address the decade worth of development gains that have been lost due to the pandemic and Coalition cuts”.
“We will work with our Pacific family to support specific projects that deliver real change in areas of health, economic growth, education, climate change adaptation and resilience,” she said.
Labor has repeatedly criticised the Morrison government for not sending Foreign Minister Marise Payne to the Solomons, which was based on advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs to take a subtle approach to handling the agreement and to further avoid antagonising Sogavare. Instead, Payne’s junior minister Zed Seselja travelled to the Pacific nation earlier in April.
Payne said on Tuesday the government had taken a “careful and collaborated approach to these issues respecting Solomon Islands’ sovereignty”.
She repeated Morrison’s warning that China establishing a military base would be a “red line”, but said “I don’t think it’s helpful to speculate” on what Australia’s response would be.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the speculation China will build a military base in Solomon Islands was “pure disinformation, fabricated by a handful of people who harbour ulterior motives”.
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