PNG discusses security deal with China despite links to Australia, US

The Australian government is being urged to intervene in negotiations over a China-Papua New Guinea security deal after PNG’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkachenko said one of Australia’s closest neighbours was in early talks with Beijing.

Tkachenko told Reuters on Monday that Port Moresby and Beijing were in early negotiations over a policing deal after deadly riots swamped the capital in January.

“We deal with China at this stage only at the economic and trade level. They are one of our biggest trading partners, but they have offered to assist our policing and security on the internal security side,” he said.

Port Moresby, PNG’s capital, was hit by rioting earlier in January.Credit: AFP

“They have offered it to us, but we have not accepted it at this point in time.”

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin described PNG as a “good friend and partner” on Monday night but did not give further details about any proposed security deal.

“China is willing to continue to work with Papua New Guinea to continue to promote cooperation in relevant fields, deepen and promote common development,” he said.

PNG signed a $200 million security deal with Australia last month to boost policing. Days later Prime Minister James Marape told an investment conference in Sydney that he did not hold talks with China on security when he visited Beijing in October after naming Australia and the United States as security partners.

Reuters reported China approached PNG in September with an offer to assist its police force with training, equipment, and surveillance technology. Tkachenko said PNG would not do anything to jeopardise its defence and security relationships with Australia or the US, and was not a “fence-sitter”.

Mihai Sora, the project director of the Australia-PNG network at the Lowy Institute and a former diplomat in the region, said China’s strategic intent in the Pacific was constant.

“It’s always looking for opportunities to insert itself in the security space,” he said. “The bigger picture is that China wants to ensure its access to the resources that it gets from the Pacific.”

Sora said Australian ministers should be talking through “the potential repercussions for whatever is on the table” with their PNG counterparts. Pacific Minister Pat Conroy, who announced a $35 million investment in policing in East Timor on Monday, was contacted for comment.

“In the event of any kind of security deal, there are implications for the regional balance of power,” said Sora. “If it ends up providing policing support to PNG, that’s not going to give it strategic access in the region, but it’s a step towards that ultimate objective of expanding its strategic access.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said Australia was working actively with PNG to meet its needs across the security sector.

“Pacific Islands Forum Leaders share the view that the security of the Pacific is the shared responsibility of the Forum family, of which Australia is part,” the spokesperson said.

But China is now PNG’s number one trading partner, with $8 billion in two-way trade dominated by gas and minerals.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visiting PNG in 2018. Credit: AP

Beijing lodged “solemn representations” with the PNG government in January after Chinese businesses were attacked during riots in the capital Port Moresby as part of wider civil unrest over pay cuts for local police and civil servants.

“There was beating, smashing, looting and burning, and some commercial facilities including many Chinese shops were robbed,” the Chinese embassy said in a statement.

Riots and looting of Chinese businesses preceded the Solomon Islands’ security deal with Beijing in 2022. The deal allows Chinese police to train local police officers to protect their investments while also giving Chinese naval ships access to the Pacific Island nation just three hours north of Brisbane.

“The scale of support that PNG needs is well beyond what Australia could reasonably provide,” said Sora. “The point of friction is do you want a government like the Chinese Communist Party providing law and order training to police in the region. That’s what makes people really uncomfortable. Is the juice worth the squeeze?”

The negotiations follow closer ties between PNG and China over the past decade. Marape was one of the few international leaders to visit Beijing during the 2022 Winter Olympics. In October, Marape and China’s President Xi Jinping signed a joint statement that reiterated their respect for each “other’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity”.

The joint statement said PNG regarded Taiwan as “an inalienable part of China’s territory” and that it supported “all efforts made by the government of the People’s Republic of China to realise reunification”.

Last week PNG’s Pacific neighbour Nauru cut its diplomatic ties with Taiwan to establish relations with China. Nauru’s President David Adeang said it was in the best interests of the country after Beijing offered greater economic investment in the small island nation. China’s flag was raised at the Chinese embassy in Nauru on Monday for the first time in almost two decades.

Sora said China was pursuing Pacific partners to give it more support in international forums and further alienate Taiwan, the democratic island that it claims as its own.

“It wants to strengthen its bilateral relations with the Pacific, so it can leverage that in international fora, like in the UN, for example, to get Pacific countries to vote on its side.”

With Reuters and Matthew Knott

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