Papua New Guinea’s prime minister on Thursday became the first Pacific Island leader ever to address Australia’s parliament, vowing close ties despite ever-louder overtures from China.
Hailing long relations and Australia’s pivotal role in his country’s 1975 independence, James Marape said nothing would come between the two nations.
In recent years, Beijing has tried to chip away at US and Australian influence across the South Pacific, including in Papua New Guinea.
The Pacific Islands, while small in population, are replete with natural resources and sit at a geostrategic crossroads that could prove strategically vital in any military dispute over Taiwan.
Chinese state-backed firms have poured investment into the region, while Beijing has offered much-needed loans and security aid, launching a battle for influence.
But amid suggestions that Papua New Guinea may ink a deal that would allow Chinese police to deploy to his country, and Australia’s doorstep, Marape said Sydney remained an indispensable partner.
“In a world of many relations, with many nations, nothing will come in between our two countries, because we are family — through tears, blood, pain and sacrifice,” he said.
Marape’s speech was warmly welcomed by Australian lawmakers, who gave several rounds of applause as he spoke.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was fitting that “the first leader of a Pacific island nation to address the Australian Parliament, ever” was from the country’s closest neighbour.
“We are there for each other as mates, especially when times are tough,” he said.
But Marape’s speech was also imbued with references to the difficult colonial past between the two countries and frustration about the lack of economic development in what remains one of the Asia-Pacific’s poorest nations.
Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia 49 years ago and since then has remained highly dependent on Australian aid to survive.
“I speak to you in the language you taught me,” Marape said, addressing the chamber in English, saying his main message was to say “thank you” to “all who have stayed with us for the last 49 years”.
But he also vowed that Papua New Guinea would move from donor recipient to “economically independent and strong”.
“We are working very hard to ensure that PNG emerges as an economy that is self-sustaining… so that we too can help keep our region safe, secure and prosperous.”
On the eve of Marape’s visit to Canberra, Papua New Guinea’s police chief told AFP that Australia will soon bolster his nation’s struggling force in the wake of recent deadly unrest.
An initial contingent of 20 police will be flown in from Commonwealth countries in the first quarter of 2024, Police Commissioner David Manning told AFP.
Papua New Guinea will pay “absolutely nothing” under the Australian-funded initiative, Manning said, without providing financial details.
About 50 officers from the Commonwealth — a club of more than 50 nations that are almost all former territories of the British Empire — were expected to arrive this year, the police chief said.
The South Pacific nation’s police force numbers just a few thousand officers for a population of almost 10 million people.
Security is precarious in much of the country.
A police strike over unexplained deductions from officers’ pay was blamed for stoking riots last month in which at least 25 people were killed.
