SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Wednesday Papua New Guinea had proposed a security treaty between both countries amid increasing tensions in the Pacific islands after China struck a security pact with neighbouring Solomon Islands.
PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko also told ABC Television he had discussed a security treaty with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong during her visit to Port Moresby on Tuesday, while Wong told ABC the discussions were in a “very early stage.”
The Solomon Islands has had a tense relationship with the United States and its Pacific allies since striking a security pact with China in April. Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific island countries have said security needs should be met within the region.
“This is an idea that has been put forward by PNG,” Marles told ABC radio on Wednesday.
“We have been making it really clear we want to be as close to PNG as we can be. We want to build on the already close military to military relationship that we have with Papua New Guinea, which we see as one of the most important military to military relationships that we have,” he added.
Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest northern neighbour, separated by only a few kilometres, and a former colony, but has increasing trade and investment ties with China.
China failed to reach a sweeping trade and security pact with 10 Pacific nations including PNG in June.
Australia and the United States are funding the upgrade of a naval base on PNG’s Manus Island, after a failed Chinese offer to redevelop a naval base in 2018.
Chinese navy vessels transit through the narrow Torres Strait separating Australia and PNG, with the activity becoming a point of friction in February when a Chinese ship directed a laser at an Australian military surveillance aircraft in flight over Australia’s northern approaches.
The Solomon Islands, which has maritime borders with PNG and Australia, on Tuesday said it was suspending port visits by foreign navies until it puts in place a new approval process.
Marles declined to comment directly on whether Australia had been notified of the moratorium on port visits, after the United States government received notice a week after a U.S. coast guard vessel was unable to make a port call in Honiara.
“We want to see Australia be the natural partner of choice for the countries of the Pacific, that is not something that we take for granted,” he said.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
