This round to US in ‘geopolitical games’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The security deal signed this week by Papua New Guinea and the United States is a major counter-manoeuvre in the battle for influence in the South Pacific between the US and China.

Over the past decade, China has strengthened its ties in the strategically important Pacific region through increased aid, development, diplomacy and security cooperation.

Traditional Pacific “powers” Australia and New Zealand stepped up diplomatic efforts with our Pacific neighbours in response, leading to an agreement in September 2019 to increase development assistance.

Then in April 2022 the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, saying a similar deal with Australia had been inadequate.

The following month China pushed for a wide-ranging trade and security pact with 10 Pacific Island states, but was rebuffed. China acknowledged concerns raised by some nations and said it would seek consensus for a deal.

Three months later the US appeared to have gained the upper hand, with the unprecedented move of Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji via video link, promising more diplomatic attention and more aid for economic development and ocean resilience.

In February this year the US reopened an embassy in the Solomon Islands after a 30-year absence. The following month a Chinese state company won a contract to redevelop the port in Honiara, the Solomons’ capital, and two regional wharves.

China appears to have a focus on security cooperation and commercial activities of late, with Australia overtaking it as the “leading source of bilateral loans to the Pacific” according to 2022 data from the Lowry Institute.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was in Port Moresby for the Pacific Islands Forum on Monday. Speaking to reporters just ahead of the signing of the second superpower security pact in the region, he said New Zealand welcomed the increased US presence but was “not interested in the militarisation of the Pacific”.

Also ahead of the deal being signed, China warned against the introduction of “geopolitical games” into the region.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the largest and most populous Pacific Island nation, with 10 million people, in a strategically significant location just north of Australia.

The new security deal will not be made public until politicians from both countries have a chance for input, but the US State Department said it provided a framework to help improve security cooperation, enhance the capacity of PNG’s defence force and increase regional stability. The US also signed a maritime agreement which will allow the US Coast Guard to partner with PNG to counter illegal fishing and drug smuggling.