Papua New Guinea’s PM to Visit Australian Parliament, Address Beijing’s Influence

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (2nd R) participates in an official signing ceremony with Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape (2nd L) at Parliament House in Canberra on December 7, 2023. Hilary Wardhaugh/AFP via Getty Images

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape begins an official visit to Australia today, during which he will address both houses of parliament—the first in-person address by a foreign leader since 2020.

He will also have one-on-one talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, building on the Bilateral Security Agreement signed last year, and address security and economic cooperation, infrastructure, and “deepening people-to-people links.”

Last year, Mr. Albanese was the first foreign head of government to address Papua New Guinea’s National Parliament since 2018, and said it was fitting to invite Mr. Marape to do the same.

Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest neighbour, with less than four kilometres separating the two countries at their closest point. It was under Australian rule until gaining independence in 1975. The federal government provides more aid to PNG than to anywhere else in the Pacific.

Official figures put the population at 9 million—mostly subsistence farmers who speak more than 800 languages. However, a 2022 United Nations report said the actual population could be as high as 17 million people.

Strategic Importance

Papua New Guinea is of key strategic importance to Australia and its allies, particularly as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attempts to exert its influence over small Pacific nations.

In 2022, the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, sparking international concern over the possibility of Beijing building its first military base in the region.

The US responded by re-opening its embassy there after a 30-year absence. It also increased its diplomatic efforts in the Pacific diplomacy, hosting a leaders’ summit and whirlwind tours by senior officials, including vice-president Kamala Harris. It also pledged more aid.

The CCP’s expansion is not confined to the Solomon Islands, however.

In 2022, the small island nation of Kiribati withdrew from the Pacific Islands Forum in a move widely seen as having been influenced by the CCP, which is rumoured to be discussing extending a runway on the atoll, which could then accommodate strategic bombers.

While the US and Australia both focus on aid as a key means to win favour, analysts such as the Lowy Institute have said that Beijing’s aid to the region has actually been falling since 2016.

Instead, Beijing appears to be focusing on strengthening security cooperation, as evidenced by the Solomon Islands deal, and increasing commercial activities. This strategy is known as Beijing’s Common Development Vision, which it has been unwilling to discuss openly.

Australia a Key Player

Any efforts by the United States struggle to overcome decades of American policy neglect, making Australia—and New Zealand—key players in keeping Pacific Island nations under the Western umbrella.

The Australia-United Kingdom-United States pact (known as AUKUS) has so far been accepted by Fiji, Micronesia and Samoa.

However, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia have questioned how Australia’s participation is in line with keeping the region a nuclear-free zone, as directed by the 13-nation Treaty of Rarotonga. Tuvalu has condemned AUKUS, but to date remains the only Pacific Island nation to do so.

Beijing has not been warmly welcomed by the Pacific bloc either.

When then-Foreign Minister Wang Yi spent 10 days in the region in late May and early June 2022, selling the Common Development Vision, the then-President of Micronesia, David Panuelo, wrote an unprecedented and highly critical letter (pdf) to fellow Pacific Island leaders calling Beijing’s plan a “smokescreen for a larger agenda” to “ensure Chinese control of ’traditional and non-traditional security' of our islands.”

Just yesterday (Feb. 6), United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma urged Papua New Guinea to reject Beijing’s offer of a potential security pact, warning that any security guarantee with the CCP comes with consequences and costs.

All of which makes Prime Minister Marape’s visit a critical step in forging closer relationships with Australia, and bolstering the region against further CCP incursion.