Excellent news, from The Australian:
Australia is working on plans with Papua New Guinea to develop a joint naval base on Manus Island, edging out Chinese interest in the strategically vital port with a new facility that would be capable of hosting Australian and US warships.
The Australian understands Malcolm Turnbull and PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill discussed the proposed defence partnership at a July 11 meeting in Brisbane ahead of this year’s third State of Origin match.
Mr O’Neill was said to be “very interested” in working with Australia to redevelop the Lombrum Naval Base as a joint facility, prompting a scoping mission by Australian defence officials.
The PNG Prime Minister, who was briefed on the results of the scoping study, later wrote to Mr Turnbull to formally express his support for the project.
The Turnbull government had hoped to finalise arrangements for the investment before the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting, to be hosted by PNG from November 12-18, which will be preceded by a special summit for Pacific leaders in Port Moresby hosted by China’s President Xi Jinping.
This is a material shift forward in pushing Chinese sharp power back. Previously via The Australian:
Plans to build a multi-use port on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island have stoked fears that China could be set to gain a foothold on the strategically vital island, as Beijing is potentially in line to help fund the facility.
Australian government officials, defence experts and Manus Island residents are concerned at the high level of Chinese foreign investment on Manus Island, a site long considered pivotal by defence strategists because of its sweeping command of the Pacific Ocean and the maritime approaches to Asia.
The Australian can reveal that a plan by the PNG government to refurbish four ports across the country — Wewak, Kikori, Vanimo and Manus Island — has alarmed locals who fear Beijing is courting the Pacific island nations, particularly PNG, for strategic advantage.
A Chinese PNG is an absolute Australian strategic nightmare. Such an outcome would blockade Australia completely. It would be the end of our sovereignty.
Yet that is the way it is going. Previously from The Guardian:
China’s aid spending in Papua New Guinea – with its focus on infrastructure and “few-strings-attached” concessional loans – risks eroding Australia’s influence in the country, with Australian aid sometimes viewed as paternalistic and unwieldy.
A Deakin University submission to a parliamentary inquiry, based on interviews with Papua New Guinean business, political, academic and community leaders argues Australia risks being diminished by rising Chinese spending.
PNG is Australia’s closest neighbour, and for reasons of proximity and a shared history – PNG was under Australian administration until 1975 – Australia has been its most significant international partner.
And whatever the people of PNG think may not matter. Via The Australian earlier this year:
The Papua New Guinea government’s plan to ban Facebook — the platform favoured by vitriolic domestic critics — for a period is only the latest in a succession of threats to clamp down on internet use.
But this time, the nation may be in a better position to take action since it is forging closer links with its Chinese counterpart — the world’s leading internet censor.
…Discussion has already begun towards the prospect of negotiating a free-trade agreement between PNG and China, reinforcing a relationship that is highlighted by a $4.6 billion concessional credit line already made available by China for PNG.
…The internet was launched in PNG on March 12, 1997. By 2014, when users were last surveyed, only about 10 per cent of the country’s eight million people had access, compared with the half who now have access to mobile phones as a result of the drive by Irish company Digicel.
This online community in PNG, however, includes a disproportionate number of people who consistently post material highly critical — sometimes defamatory — of leading figures in the government, including Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.
We need to be on the front foot. PM Property Council should accelerate the process.
