Richard Marles proposes Pacific pact of defence forces

The Albanese government will offer Pacific Island countries unprecedented defence support and the potential to integrate their military forces for security and natural disaster missions.

Australian high commissioner Jonathan Philp, Defence Minister Richard Marles, PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko and his first secretary Tokana Hasavi Jr at Jacksons International Airport in Port Moresby on Wednesday.

The Albanese government will offer Pacific Island countries unprecedented defence support and the potential to integrate their military forces with Australia’s to undertake regional security and natural disaster response missions.

Defence Minister Richard Marles will discuss the plan with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, James Marape, and PNG counterpart Win Bakri Daki during a two-day trip to the country this week, before raising it with other Pacific nations.

Mr Marles will ask PNG to identify capability gaps that Australia could help to address, and offer dramatically enhanced training opportunities for the country’s soldiers and officers.

He will extend the offer to other Pacific Island countries at a meeting of regional defence ministers next week, suggesting the level of military co-operation between Australia and its regional neighbours could one day approach that of Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Marles sees an opportunity for greater defence co-operation with Pacific Island countries, ­levering off Australia’s historic ties with the region and a shared ­commitment to meet regional security challenges as a single ­“Pacific family”.

“Australia seeks to deepen our defence engagement with PNG and other Pacific nations,” he told The Australian. “This is part of being a good neighbour and partner in the region. As the Albanese government seeks to re-engage in the region, we do so asking fundamental questions: What are your capability gaps? How can Australia help? How can Australia be a better partner?”

It’s expected PNG will request Australian support to rebuild its defence aviation capabilities and potentially ask for an extra ­Guardian-class patrol boat to protect its exclusive economic zone from illegal fishers.

Mr Marles will raise the future of the joint PNG-Australia-US naval base on Manus Island, which the Albanese government sees as a “huge strategic asset” for all three countries.

It is understood PNG and other Pacific nation forces could be invited to Australia’s jungle warfare training school at Tully in Queensland under the closer engagement plan, and be offered the opportunity to deploy with the Australian Defence Force on ­regional exercises and support missions.

In the longer term, Pacific personnel could be embedded in the ADF in the same way as Australians serve in US and British militaries and take key regional command roles, senior government sources said.

The plan follows Labor’s election promise to establish an ­Australia-Pacific Defence School to provide training programs for the defence and police forces of PNG, Fiji, Tonga, East Timor, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

It is understood Mr Marles will move to reassure Australia’s ­Pacific neighbours they would retain control over their own forces while emphasising the potential for skills development and professional advancement.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong will also travel into the region this week, going to Nauru and the Marshall Islands for talks on ­security, climate-resistant infrastructure, and economic co-­operation.

The Pacific outreach comes amid growing concerns over China’s attempts to expand its strategic footprint in the region, as a detachment of Solomon Islands police departed for training in China this week under the countries’ security pact.

It comes as a submission to the government’s Defence Strategic Review, obtained by The Australian, suggests the creation of a “Pacific Regiment” within the ADF – something that existed during World War II and was re-raised to serve in PNG from 1951 until 1975. It also calls for Pacific Islanders to be recruited directly into the ADF, saying military service “is a unique offer we can make that countries such as China can’t”.

The submission, from Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior fellow Anthony Bergin and US Centre for Security Policy senior fellow Grant Newsham, says Australian and US ties with Pacific Island countries will be the key to success or failure in a war with China over Taiwan.

The proposed Pacific regiment should focus on humanitarian ­assistance and disaster relief, and regional stabilisation, with engineering and construction capabilities, they suggest. “It doesn’t really matter what the organising principle is so long as it is Australia and the US doing it, not the People’s Republic of China,” the submission suggests. “The Pacific Regiment could be headquartered in Fiji or PNG with ADF personnel integrated into it under South Pacific command.”

The ADF and New Zealand Defence Force would be key contributors to such a force, while the US Marine Corps’ Littoral Combat Regiments should also be involved, together with Japanese forces, the submission says.

It calls for a permanent ADF presence in the Pacific, including the installation of “small detachments in as many island nations as possible”.

A US Marine Corps expeditionary force should also operate from Darwin, with Australian and Japanese involvement, they say.

“Enabling greater US access to expanded facilities here in Australia is about our security and improving our own defence facilities for our use and that of our allies and partners,” the submission says.

“It’s about us building facilities, scaled to enable our own ­forces and our partners’ to operate from … because we have a critical geographical position that gives easy access to the Pacific and Indian oceans.”