The flags of the United States and Papua New Guinea are show in a 2016 photo. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Lance Cpl. Quavaungh Pointer)
SYDNEY — In a clear sign of just how vital the Pacific Islands are now perceived to be by the US military, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin plans to become the first US defense secretary to visit the island state of Papua New Guinea during his eighth visit to the Indo-Pacific.
Austin will meet with Prime Minister James Marape, Defense Minister Win Bakri Daki, Defense Secretary Hari John Akipe, and Chief of Defence Force Maj. Gen. Mark Goina during his trip to Port Moresby.
The announcement of Austin’s visit to Papua New Guinea came in the wake of more signs that that neighboring Solomon Islands continues to move towards China as its key partner.
In only his second press conference in the last four years, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare accused Australia and the United States of being “un-neighborly” and not doing enough to help his tiny country. His comments came as he returned from a visit to Beijing, where he met with President Xi Jinping and signed, per the AP, “nine agreements and memorandums, including a police cooperation plan.”
“China is supporting more Chinese enterprises to invest and do business in Solomon Islands, and will continue to provide economic and technical assistance to the country without any political strings attached,” Xi said. During his visit, Sogovare also officially opened the Solomon Islands embassy in Beijing. After not having an embassy in the island state since 1999, the US opened a new embassy in Honiara in February.
Of course, Sogovare may be skillfully playing the Great Game in search of cash, investments and power. For example, when the prime minister was in Australia late last year, he said “Australia was Solomon Islands’s security partner of choice” and was photographed hugging Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. It’s not known if Xi hugged Sogavare off-camera.
During his visit to PNG, Austin will discuss what happens next after the recent signing of the US-Papua New Guinea Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), according to an official release about the visit.
After that, Austin travels to Australia to meet with Defense Minister Richard Marles and officials for the annual AUMIN meetings, alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong. The focus at the AUSMIN meetings, which begin at the end of the month, will be “force posture modernization, defense industrial base cooperation, and regional security integration,” according to the US release.
Not spelled out is that AUKUS will obviously be a major focus of those discussions now that Australians are graduating from nuclear school in the US and more Royal Australian Navy sailors are boarding US nuclear-powered submarines. It’s likely a considerable amount of discussion will occur about ways to speed export approvals and reduce the impact of ITAR restrictions on the sharing of technology, knowledge and personnel as AUKUS ramps up, issues on which the US Congress is focused.
