U.S. and Papua New Guinea sign new security pact countering China

The U.S. signed a security pact Monday with Papua New Guinea, a strategically important Pacific Island nation of nearly 10 million people north of Australia, where Washington and Beijing are competing for influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Defense Cooperation Agreement will enhance New Guinea’s capability to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and make it easier for both countries to train together to address regional security concerns.

“For nearly 50 years, Papua New Guinea and the United States have worked together to deliver prosperity for our people and promote security and stability for the region,” Mr. Blinken said during Monday’s signing ceremony. “That shared history is also a living history, and together — even as we’re inspired by so much that we’ve done in the past — we are working together to shape the future.”

President Biden was supposed to personally sign the security pact with Papua New Guinea during a planned visit to the island nation after attending the Group of Seven gathering of the world’s most economically powerful democracies in Japan over the weekend.

But the president canceled the Papua New Guinea leg of the trip to instead fly back to Washington to focus on debt limit talks with congressional leaders. 

The U.S. has increased its regional focus as part of its strategy to counter growing Chinese influence. Last year, Washington inaugurated the new U.S. Embassy in Papua New Guinea and recently opened new embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga. The State Department is working on plans to open other diplomatic missions in Oceania, including Vanuatu and Kiribati.

“We’re strengthening our partnerships on public health, the climate crisis, economic growth, and other key regional priorities that respond to people’s needs and expectations,” Mr. Blinken said Monday. “By September, we’ll open a new USAID mission here in the Pacific Islands based in Papua New Guinea to advance those efforts.”

Last year, the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, a diplomatic move that set off alarm bells throughout the region and in Washington. Beijing has accused the U.S. of trying to drive a wedge between Pacific Island nations and “regional countries” and pointed to this weekend’s G7 meetings in Hiroshima, Japan, as an attempt by Washington to institute an “America First” policy.

“Gone are the days when a handful of Western countries can just willfully meddle in other countries’ internal affairs and manipulate global affairs,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said after the G7 meeting.

Mr. Blinken said the U.S. has helped Pacific Island countries secure more than half a billion dollars from international organizations to help them manage the growing impact of climate change.

“Our Department of Commerce will lead a U.S. business delegation to the Pacific Island countries in the coming year to look at concrete opportunities in energy, in transportation, in health care, in tourism, (and) in telecommunications,” the secretary of state said. 

Papua New Guinea enforces a 1.5 million-square-mile exclusive economic zone, one of the largest in the South Pacific. The new agreement will allow cooperation between its defense forces and the U.S. Coast Guard to combat illicit maritime activities, and illegal fishing that threatens the local ecosystem and livelihoods that nourish the country’s economy.

“Under this agreement, our forces will be able to board one another’s vessels, share technical expertise, and ultimately better patrol the seas together,” Mr. Blinken said. “This is vital to protecting livelihoods for generations to come.”