{"id":81463,"date":"2023-08-01T15:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T05:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=81463"},"modified":"2023-08-01T14:51:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T04:51:43","slug":"the-rising-value-of-papua-new-guineas-strategic-geography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-rising-value-of-papua-new-guineas-strategic-geography\/","title":{"rendered":"The rising value of Papua New Guinea\u2019s strategic geography"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last week, Lloyd Austin became the first US defence secretary to visit Papua New Guinea, en route to the AUSMIN conclave in Brisbane. Austin was the latest in a long line of VIP visitors to the South Pacific nation this year, including French President Emmanuel Macron<\/a>, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,<\/a> US Secretary of State Antony Blinken<\/a>, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins<\/a> and UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly<\/a>. Australia\u2019s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese<\/a> was in Port Moresby too, in January, to progress a new bilateral security treaty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The intensified interest is concomitant with PNG\u2019s status as the standout among Pacific island countries in terms of territory, natural resources and population, giving it inherent leadership potential in a region that\u2019s been rapidly rising<\/a> up the international agenda.<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s visit<\/a> is strategically significant, because the centrepiece of the US\u2019s invigorated bilateral engagement with PNG is a defence cooperation agreement, concluded in May. It has still to be debated in PNG\u2019s parliament. The US State Department\u2019s announcement<\/a> on the agreement is couched in terms that underline the broad security benefits on offer to Port Moresby, including capacity building for the PNG Defence Force, disaster preparedness, and assistance to PNG\u2019s small maritime constabulary force in suppressing illegal activities in the country\u2019s vast sovereign archipelagic sea. The arrival of a US Coast Guard cutter to the region next year, with PNG ship riders onboard, should further the latter objective, helping to instil perceptions that greater US regional engagement contributes to security beyond narrow military considerations.<\/p>\n

The White House appears cognisant of the need to engage Pacific leaders across a comprehensive definition of security, so that the offer of an elevated US defence partnership can be politically sustainable in PNG, increasing the likelihood of it achieving local support. Yet that need shouldn\u2019t obscure the fact that PNG\u2019s primary value to the US is a function of its strategic geography. The access negotiated under the agreement serves an underlying strategic purpose, integral to the US\u2013Australia alliance, as the US Indo-Pacific Command reshapes its force posture in response to China\u2019s continuing military build-up and prepares the theatre for the future possibility of armed conflict on a regionwide scale.<\/p>\n

In June, with the ink on the agreement hardly dry, a flight of four US F-35 Lightning II aircraft en route from Australia to Hawaii diverted<\/a> to Jacksons International Airport, in Port Moresby, for an unscheduled refuelling stop after the tanker they were meant to rendezvous with developed technical problems. The incident was a timely reminder of PNG\u2019s potential as a defence partner in its own right, not simply territory to fly over or sail past.<\/p>\n

The text of the PNG\u2013US agreement reportedly identifies<\/a> six sites for \u2018unimpeded access\u2019 across the country: the port and Jacksons International Airport in the capital; the port of Lae and Nadzab airport in the east; and the naval base at Lombrum on Manus Island and nearby civilian airport at Momote in the north. The agreement also details accommodation arrangements and the legal status of US military personnel deployed to PNG, the prepositioning of defence equipment and humanitarian supplies, and refuelling and maintenance for US ships and aircraft in transit. Its duration is 15 years, an indication of purpose on Washington\u2019s part.<\/p>\n

Austin has said the US is \u2018not seeking a permanent base<\/a>\u2019 in PNG. In that, the agreement bears outward similarity to the recently expanded enhanced defence cooperation arrangement<\/a> in the Philippines, with the obvious difference that PNG is not a US treaty ally.<\/p>\n

The island of New Guinea, of which PNG forms the eastern half, is often depicted as sitting at the foot of the \u2018second island chain<\/a>\u2019. Alternatively conceived, it constitutes the biggest link in Australia\u2019s own first island chain. Either way, its importance is clear: it\u2019s not just the closest country to the Australian mainland but, with an 820-kilometre land border with Indonesia, also the hinge between Southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific. The Torres Strait, between PNG and Australia, controls access between the Indonesian archipelago and the Coral Sea. Cape York, the northernmost part of the Australian continent, points directly to Guam, in the Marianas, America\u2019s bulwark base in the second island chain. PNG is the only country in between. At AUSMIN, it was announced that Royal Australian Air Force Base Scherger<\/a>, a \u2018bare base\u2019 located on the Cape, is likely to be upgraded, partly to meet US requirements.<\/p>\n

From Washington\u2019s standpoint, air and sea access through PNG helps to ensure that US forces can both disperse safely to Australia and project power freely from it into the western Pacific. Of course, Indonesia is also geographically vital in this regard, as an island screen across Australia\u2019s Top End and northwest. Under international law, transit rights through Indonesia\u2019s archipelago are guaranteed via designated sea and air corridors. Yet access<\/a> in a crisis cannot be taken for granted, which gives PNG heightened significance as a reliable alternative. The Vitiaz Strait provides the most direct sea passage between the western Pacific and Australia\u2019s eastern seaboard.<\/p>\n

PNG\u2019s geopolitical value is further sharpened by its sea boundary with Solomon Islands (a sensitive one for PNG, given uncertainty about Bougainville\u2019s future status<\/a>), which under Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare is tilting towards China and remains one of Beijing\u2019s most likely options<\/a> to host a People\u2019s Liberation Army presence in some form, even if it\u2019s not a military base. Concern about restrictions that Honiara has imposed on some visiting US Navy vessels partly motivated<\/a> Washington to negotiate a defence cooperation agreement with PNG.<\/p>\n

Unit-level initiatives, such as Task Force Koa Moana<\/a>, which integrates US marines and sailors with PNG defence personnel, suggest that the US military intends to forge lasting military-to-military and interpersonal relations within PNG. At the onset of a conflict or crisis, PNG could itself serve as a location for the US military to disperse combat assets from Guam and bases in the first island chain. In the event of a protracted maritime conflict, the US and Australia are both likely to regard PNG as a useful \u2018in-theatre\u2019 location from which to conduct combat replenishment, basic repairs and maintenance for ships and submarines, and possibly aircraft if the infrastructure is developed to support it. Lombrum served a similar function during World War II and could do so again, but with a smaller footprint on land. Comparisons with the 1940s, when Australians and Americans fought side by side with locals against Japan can mislead, but PNG\u2019s positional importance in a US\u2013China strategic context is likely to have fundamental resonances. Austin\u2019s father served with the US Army in New Guinea during World War II, a point noted by PNG\u2019s Prime Minister James Marape during their meeting.<\/p>\n

Canberra has officially welcomed<\/a> the PNG\u2013US defence cooperation agreement. PNG\u2019s rising strategic profile and that of the South Pacific in general are also discernible in the force posture elements of the AUSMIN communiqu\u00e9<\/a>. However, the invigorated US interest is likely to engender mixed feelings in Canberra, which for so long has seen itself as Port Moresby\u2019s partner of choice. Australia\u2019s defence cooperation program with PNG is its largest and the bonds run deep. Securing support for the US agreement has depleted Marape\u2019s political capital, delaying<\/a> the ratification of Australia\u2019s own treaty-level agreement by several months. Nevertheless, the US decision to double down on defence cooperation with PNG stands to bolster Australia\u2019s security significantly in the long run. It can be considered an extended investment in the US\u2013Australia alliance, strengthening linear communications along the second island chain in particular, and facilitating access to and from Australia for US forces across the Pacific theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Lloyd Austin became the first US defence secretary to visit Papua New Guinea, en route to the AUSMIN conclave in Brisbane. Austin was the latest in a long line of VIP visitors to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":81466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,51,2160,357,2397],"class_list":["post-81463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-defence-cooperation","tag-pacific-islands","tag-papua-new-guinea","tag-us-alliances"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe rising value of Papua New Guinea\u2019s strategic geography | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-rising-value-of-papua-new-guineas-strategic-geography\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The rising value of Papua New Guinea\u2019s strategic geography | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, Lloyd Austin became the first US defence secretary to visit Papua New Guinea, en route to the AUSMIN conclave in Brisbane. 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