Manus Island new home for Australian navy as China’s influence in the Pacific Islands grows

It played an important role during WWII. Now Australia is reopening a forgotten PNG naval base amid tensions with China.

Exclusive: Australia has taken its biggest strategic step since World War II to protect our north with the first stage opening in Papua New Guinea of a refurbished joint naval base that was once as big as Pearl Harbor and could again see Australian and US warships based offshore.

For the past year, defence officials from PNG and Australia and contributions from the US have been quietly rejuvenating the strategically positioned deepwater port of Lombrum on the tiny Los Negros Island in Manus Province.

The move was prompted by growing anxiety over China’s aggressive military push in the region, notably including an offer by Beijing to take over four largely mothballed World War II era ports in PNG including Lombrum and military bases in Fiji and Vanuatu.

For the first time, News Corp Australia can reveal it was the historical ties with PNG and extensive negotiations that saw Australia favoured over China in establishing a foothold on the strategically vital island.

The strategically positioned deepwater port of Lombrum on the tiny Los Negros Island in Manus is being rejuvenated. Picture: Gary Ramage

PNG Defence Minister Saki Soloma said Australia was chosen because we are “wantok”, which translates to friends and relatives.

And it was with uncharacteristic speed, Australian Defence officials working with PNG counterparts stepped in and with paint barely dry and almost one year to the day since they began the project, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds formally opened phase 1 of the long-term rejuvenated military base program.

Manus now has a new deep harbour wharf, long-range communication capabilities, and maritime infrastructure facilities and troops barracks.

The Royal Australian Navy has also been training up a PNG maritime force.

There are currently 160 PNG naval staff based there to rise to 400 in coming months as four long-range Guardian patrol boats gifted by Australia to PNG come alongside.

Australian Defence Minister Senator Linda Reynolds danced with a few locals at the opening of the base. Picture: Gary Ramage

The ship can stay at sea for 30 days.

But it is not just the RAN, for the past year the RAAF has also been quietly working at rebuilding a PNG air force from ground up.

The Papuans have an 800-strong air force personnel but no pilots or serviceable aircraft which for the last 12 months has seen Australian RAAF engineers literally pulling apart the aircraft they do have for overhaul and training squads of PNG pilots to be operational by year’s end.

A runway on Los Negros has also been extended.

Senator Reynolds’ presence on Manus just months after becoming Defence Minister reaffirms the importance Australia places on the strategic relationship with PNG and follows through on a pledge she gave her PNG counterpart Saki Soloma.

“It has always been a very strategic location in our region and this is a base the Papua New Guineans have identified that they would like to further develop,” she said.

“This is strategically important … in a military context it has always been important and remains so.”

She said the defence co-operation program with PNG totalled $42 million a year and was extensive, including hardware, training and infrastructure based on PNG and other Pacific nations identifying a maritime security shortfall.

But she said for Australia it wasn’t a competition to see who could help which nation first and throw the most money at them.

“There is a sense of urgency, coming from PNG and the Pacific region more generally … I genuinely do not see this as a competition. We listen and provide what is asked for including the Lombrum naval base making it fit for purpose and maritime and border security … this is mateship and trust over many, many years. It’s 40 years this year defence co-operation, its our biggest defence co-operation program but it hasn’t happened overnight but over 40 years.”

Lombrum, also known as HMPNGS Tarangau, base commander Peter Tupma said the base expansion was needed.

“The world is shifting and there are power plays in our region and we are very blessed to be in partnership with Australia,” he said.

World War Two, Manus Island in Papua New Guinea was an important Commonwealth naval base for the RAAF. Picture: Navy

MORE CHINA NEWS:

Hong Kong protesters tell Australia: ‘Help us fight China’

‘Chosen one’: Trump’s most bizarre claim yet

Manus Island has only really made headlines in recent years as the controversial home for unwanted refugees but could now be known as potentially the new permanent home for Australian warships.

Manus with sweeping command of Australia’s maritime north, hosted a Royal Australian naval base from the 1950s until 1974.

Seventy-five years ago at the height of World War II, the base facilities matched those of Pearl Harbor as 800 warships and barracks for another 150,000 personnel was positioned at Lombrum ahead of the retaking of the Philippines.

It had been largely mothballed since the 1970s but the aggressive expansion of China in the Pacific region and South China Sea prompted Australia and the United States to renew military partnership with PNG and specifically fund a sweeping refurbishment and expansion.

Australia with the strong encouragement of the US accelerated plans for a military flex in the region after China swept through South East Asia and the Pacific unchecked, deepening its influence through billions of dollars in loans for infrastructure in cash-strapped nations.

Australian Defence Minister Senator Linda Reynolds with the PNG Defence Minister Saki Soloma. Picture: Gary Ramage

China went from virtually no financial aid or engagement in the Pacific to suddenly engaging in so-called ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, offering poor nations huge loans for infrastructure projects they cannot pay back and have to give concessions in exchange for debt relief.

In July 2017 Sri Lanka learnt how it worked when it could not pay a $1.4 billion debt back to China so had to hand over its key port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year-lease to wipe the debt.

China has also made moves to offer cash for either transformative projects of infrastructure or development of military bases in Vanuatu, Cambodia and Tonga.

In PNG, where it has already heavily invested promised an incredible $4.8 billion for a new road network from Port Moresby, to fund transformative projects.

In Fiji, which already owes China more than $500 million, Beijing offered to upgrade its Black Rock military base in Nadi.

Australia blocked the move and offered to financially assist.

In Beijing, the government has flagged Australia’s strengthening military ties with the US as fostering “uncertainty” in the region and efforts by the Americans and Japan regional military alliances as “adding complexity”.

Originally published as Manus Island new home for Australian navy as China’s influence in the Pacific Islands grows