Papua New Guinea (PNG) is in early talks with China on a potential security and policing deal, Papua New Guinean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Justin Tkachenko said yesterday, weeks after deadly riots in the South Pacific nation’s capital.
Amid jostling between Washington and Beijing for influence in the Pacific, the biggest Pacific Island nation, PNG, has previously said that Australia and the US are its security partners, while China is an important economic partner.
China approached PNG in September last year with an offer to assist its police force with training, equipment and surveillance technology, Tkachenko said in an interview with Reuters. Talks continued last week.
Photo: AFP
“We deal with China at this stage only at 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,” Tkachenko said.
PNG is to assess if the Chinese offer duplicates security and policing assistance already being offered by Australia and the US, he said.
“It is still in early stages of negotiation with our Commissioner of Police and our Minister of Internal Security,” he said. “They have offered it to us, but we have not accepted it at this point in time.”
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China is a “strong economic partner” of PNG and the two nations formed diplomatic ties in 1975, Tkachenko said.
PNG last month signed a A$200 million (US$132 million) security deal with Australia to boost policing and days later Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape told an investment conference in Sydney that he had not held talks with China on security when he visited Beijing in October last year.
PNG had chosen Australia and the US as security partners, he said.
Riots in PNG’s capital, Port Moresby, earlier this month left at least 16 dead, with major retail stores burned and looted, after police held a strike over pay. Marape’s government called in the PNG Defence Force to restore order, but did not seek Australia’s help.
The Chinese embassy complained to PNG over the safety risk to Chinese citizens living in Port Moresby.
PNG in May last year struck a Defense Cooperation Agreement with Washington during a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, giving the US military access to PNG ports and airports.
Tkachenko said PNG would not do anything to jeopardize its defense and security relationships with Australia or the US, and was not a “fence-sitter.”
Riots in the neighboring Solomon Islands in 2021 saw China strike security and policing pacts with the administration of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare a year later, alarming Washington and Canberra.
Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy yesterday pledged A$35 million in policing assistance to neighboring East Timor during an official visit, amid concern in Canberra that Beijing is again aggressively targeting the police and security sectors in the Pacific.
Conroy today is to visit Nauru, which earlier this month switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing.
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
RSS