MEDIA STATEMENT
| Russkiy Mir Foundation

PORT MORESBY - The National Library and Archives will today host the opening ceremony of the Russkiy Mir (Russian World) Centre in Papua New Guinea.

The Miklouho-Maclay Fund with the support of the Russian foreign ministry and the Russkiy Mir Foundation initiated the creation of the centre.

Solomons prime minister Manasseh Sogavare and Chinese premier Li Keqiang (AP)

ALEXANDRE DAYANT
| Nikkei Asian Review

SYDNEY - In October, the New York Times reported that China had leased the island of Tulagi, prized for its deep-water harbor, from the Solomon Islands, which lie northeast of Australia.

While the Solomon Islands government has said such a lease is illegal, it set alarm bells ringing internationally, coming less than a week after the country severed relations with Taipei and turned to Beijing.

The Bougainville people are delighted to be voting in their long-promised independence referendum, but the hardest decisions still lie ahead

JOSHUA McDONALD
| The Diplomat

WASHINGTON DC - The Panguna mine on Bougainville is one of the largest copper and gold deposits in the world.

The mine was also at the centre of a decade-long civil war fought between the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and the Papua New Guinea Defence Force in the 1990s. The conflict cost as many as 15,000 lives and displaced 40,000 of the island’s 200,000 inhabitants.

James Marape and Scott Morrison - Australia's billion kina loan equals about what PNG lost in its ill-fated venture into Oil Search

TOM McILROY
| Australian Financial Review | Extracts

SYDNEY - Australia will loan Papua New Guinea $442 million (K1 billion)) in direct budget assistance designed to secure essential government services and rebuff financial overtures from China.

The Morrison government agreed to the loan request from PNG prime minister James Marape, offering immediate financial support linked to his plans for longer-term economic reforms in the struggling nation.

The photo of Bryan Kramer MP and Dr Chakriya Bowman in the front seat of a vehicle. The image was later doctored to airbrush out the other passengers

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – Following his exposure of Peter O’Neill’s efforts to evade arrest on allegations of corruption, Papua New Guinea police minister Bryan Kramer says he has been subjected to a barrage of social media smears from supporters of the former prime minister.

In a Facebook post entitled ‘Desperate times calls for desperate measures’, Mr Kramer yesterday hit back at people he called “O’Neill loyalists” who he said had decided to avoid the real issue of the allegations against O’Neill.

Solomons prime minister Manasseh Sogavare Chinese premier Li Keqiang (standing) and other officials at the signing ceremony in the Great Hall of the People Beijing China (Thomas Peter-Pool)

KELVIN TAN
| Sport Business Asia

BEIJING, CHINA - China has stepped in with K250 million to bankroll the construction of the main stadium for the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands, after Honiara struggled to fund the project.

China is taking over the funding of the stadium from Taiwan, which had previously pledged the funds.

ELOUISE FOWLER
| Australian Financial Review

SYDNEY - The claim that China has engaged in ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ by offering loans worth hundreds of billions of dollars to strategically located Pacific island nations, leaving them vulnerable to China’s influence, has been hosed down in a new Lowy Institute report.

"The evidence to date suggests China has not been engaged in deliberate ‘debt-trap’ diplomacy in the Pacific," researchers at the foreign policy think tank concluded.

Ben Packham - journalist with The Australian newspaper and plenty of PNG experience

BEN PACKHAM
| The Australian

CANBERRA - A review of Australia’s annual $578m aid program in Papua New Guinea has warned law and order is deteriorating, corruption remains rife, and “weak” governance continues to hamper basic service ­delivery beyond the capital, Port Moresby.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade review found the performance of Australia’s biggest country aid program was falling short of expectations and “restorative action” was necessary.

Senator Reynolds makes a sick girl smile (Alexander Nara)

ALEXANDER NARA

PORT MORESBY - The geographical coordinates 6° 32' 0" South and 145° 37' 0" East were deemed to be somewhere in the centre of Papua New Guinea’s sovereign landmark.

An internet search revealed these satellite coordinates referred to 2,110 square kilometers of rugged mountains and narrow valleys covered with dense tropical jungle.

Fr Giorgio Licini - "It is outrageous what is being done to refugees in Manus, Port Moresby and Nauru"

FR GIORGIO LICINI

PORT MORESBY – Yesterday was World Migrant and Refugee Day and a message from Pope Francis to mark the day was particularly meaningful for our part of the world.

The words of the Pope help uncover a sense of truth about what has been going on for the past six years in Nauru and Manus.

China makes another significant inroad into the Pacific as the Solomons abandons Taiwan despite strenuous efforts by the USA to persuade it not to

KATE LYONS
| The Guardian

SYDNEY - The Solomon Islands’ government has voted to sever its longstanding ties with Taiwan and take up diplomatic relations with Beijing.

The move is a huge blow to self-ruled Taiwan, which has lost six allies since 2016, and to Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, who is seeking re-election in January amid rising tension with China.

The Solomon Islands, with about 600,000 people, is the latest country to switch allegiance to China since Tsai came to office in 2016, following Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, São Tomé and Príncipe, Panama and El Salvador.

Governors Gary Juffa and Powes Parkop lead the West Papua freedom march on Monday

GOVERNOR POWES PARKOP

PORT MORESBY - The right to self-determination is not just a universal declaration provided in Article 1 of the United Nation Charter, it’s also a right promulgated by God when he got Moses to tell Pharaoh, ‘Let my people go!’

Thank you Governor  Gary Juffa for your continuous support for our people of West Papua. You have never withered and I salute you. You are a champion of our people.

I thank prime minister James Marape for the brave stand he has taken. We are a manifestation of that stand that we won’t stand by and allow our people to be killed and oppressed.

James Marape and Scott Morrison - Australia will respond to PNG's calls but will not make the kind of sweeping overhauls to the relationship that Marape has called for

ASSESSMENTS WRITER | Stratfor Worldview | Edited

AUSTIN, USA - Papua New Guinea's new prime minister, James Marape, is touting a more nationalist push on resources for his energy- and mineral-rich country and hinting at a rebalance in great power relations, vexing both foreign companies and regional heavyweight Australia.

Since taking office in late May, Marape has launched a formal review into a multibillion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, threatened to seek Chinese help in refinancing the country's K27 billion debt and mulled an overhaul of the country's natural resource laws to increase PNG’s share of revenue.

But despite his ambitious intentions, the eager new leader will find it difficult to take any of these efforts too far, because there's only so much the small resource- and aid-dependent Pacific country can push the envelope without jeopardizing its political stability and primary income streams.

Illustration by Dionne Gain (Sydney Morning Herald)

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - Australia watchers in places like Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands will have noticed that in the last few years a profound cultural change in their southern neighbour is in progress.

The main driving force of this change is a kind of paranoia driven by a largely politically orchestrated national fear.

One of the effects of this hysteria is that we Australian people seem to be sacrificing our basic liberties and, more profoundly, our humanity.

This is well illustrated by our treatment of refugees and asylum seekers but is also manifest in our trampling of the sovereignty of some of our neighbours and the moves to shut down the freedom of our own press and media.

RPNGC and AFP officers - Australian police are said to have problems bridging the cultural gap between themselves and PNG police

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - There have been suggestions that Papua New Guinea’s police minister Bryan Kramer is thinking about seeking advice and assistance from the Australian Federal Police to bring the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary up to scratch so that it can effectively tackle a worsening law and order problem.

This has been tried before and the results were less than heartening, the reason for the failure having much to do with the inability of the Australian Federal Police to bridge the cultural gap between itself and RPNGC.

Most people in the know were not surprised. Bringing personnel from a largely peaceful urban working environment into the sort of conditions that prevail in PNG was a big ask at the best of times.

Added to that was the perception that the use of the AFP represented a neo-colonial approach. This didn’t go down well with the RPNGC itself or the general public.

But there is another option if the minister still thinks outside help is required.

Tuvalu PM and Forum chair Enele Sopoaga and Australian PM Scott Morrison (Stefan Armbruster)

STEFAN ARMBRUSTER & TESS NEWTON CAIN | DevPolicy Blog

CANBERRA - “Save Tuvalu, save the world” sang school children as they greeted the Pacific’s leaders on arrival to what became a showdown pitting the region against Australia.

This was no ambush, but had been building for years.

At the capital Funafuti’s airport the school children sat in a moat of water surrounding a diorama of a climate change devastated island.

If it wasn’t obvious, the significance was explained to them by Tuvalu’s foreign minister. The symbolism was potent, and the ritual well established by the time Australian prime minister Scott Morrison was the last of the 18 Forum leaders to stride across the tarmac.

Well briefed on what to do, he crouched to chat, showing up for the ‘Step Up’, but one major detail escaped advisers that marked out the Australian delegation.

Corney Alone - "It was crystal clear that Australia’s attempted bullying was sponsored  from the pouch of the coal and fossil fuel industry"

CORNEY KOROKAN ALONE

PORT MORESBY – They were very strong words from the Fijian prime minister, Frank Bainimarama: the sentiments of the rest of the Pacific Islands leaders captured in his views.

“China never insults the Pacific," Bainimarama said. "They don’t go down and tell the world that we’ve given this much money to the Pacific islands. They don’t do that.

"They’re good people, definitely better than Morrison, I can tell you that. The [Australian] prime minister was very insulting, very condescending, not good for the relationship….”

My own prime minister, James Marape, upon returning from Tuvalu acknowledged that "there is a climate change crisis in the region".

He further stated that he "will be vocal about it when he attends the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September this year".

Australia, or any other so-called leader of the free world, must know that Pacific Islands people value relationships.

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern with Frank Bainimarama (Mick Tsikas)

KATE LYONS | Guardian Australia | Extract

FUNAFUTI - Scott Morrison has been accused of causing an extraordinary rift between Australia and Pacific countries by the prime minister of Fiji, who said the Australian prime minister’s insulting behaviour while at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu would push nations closer to China.

In an exclusive interview with Guardian Australia after the conclusion of the forum, Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister of Fiji and a political heavyweight in the region, said Morrison’s approach during the leaders’ retreat on Thursday was “very insulting and condescending”.

“Yesterday was probably one of the most frustrating days I have ever had,” he said of the leaders’ retreat, which lasted for nearly 12 hours and almost broke down over Australia’s red lines on the climate crisis.

Scott Morrison and Tuvalu prime minister Enele Sopoaga (Mick Tsikas)

KATHARINE MURPHY | Guardian Australia | Extract

Link here to Katharine Murphy’s full commentary

CANBERRA - Pacific leaders are fully aware that things are not under control when it comes to Australia’s climate change efforts.

You can understand their impatience. They are standing on the frontline of a climate crisis, and trying to prod laggards around the world.

The Pacific needs the big emitters, and countries that can influence them, like Australia, to stop obfuscating and start acting while we’ve got a chance of averting the worst scenarios.

So, this past week, entering the global arena, Morrison found himself wedged between the campaign calm down offensive at home, and Australia’s demonstrable absence of climate leadership.

COLIN PACKHAM | Reuters

FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu - Australia is willing to help Papua New Guinea refinance its national debt, Minister for the Pacific Alex Hawke said on Tuesday, as Canberra moves to counter what it sees as China’s efforts to increase its influence in PNG.

PNG prime minister James Marape’s office said last week that he had asked China to refinance the K27 billion debt. Marape later said the government was talking with a number of parties about its debt, not just China.

Australia and its western allies worry China has been able to use loans to increase its influence in Asia and the Pacific, described by the United States as amounting to “pay-day loan” diplomacy.

Speaking in Tuvalu’s capital on Tuesday ahead of the opening of the annual Pacific Islands Forum, Hawke said Australian lawmakers would soon head to Port Moresby for talks, including on assistance for debt refinancing.

LISA MURRAY | Australian Financial Review | Extracts

SYDNEY - The Australian government has announced the next leg of its Pacific step-up ahead of Scott Morrison’s visit to Tuvalu this week, spending $19 million on establishing a new security college to train officials from the region.

The latest security initiative comes as Mr Morrison is set to face strong criticism at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting this week over Australia’s climate change policies and its support for the Adani coal mine.

The college, being set up in partnership with the Australian National University, is aimed at boosting links between security and police officials across the Pacific amid concern about China’s expanding investment and influence.

Jonathan Pryke, director of the Pacific Islands program at the Lowy Institute, said Mr Morrison would be bracing himself ahead of this week's forum.

MELISSA CLARKE | Australian Broadcasting Corporation | Extract

SYDNEY - Scott Morrison's pledge to "step up" relations with the Pacific will be put to the test this coming week, with the Prime Minister heading to Tuvalu for talks with Pacific leaders.

The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting begins Monday in the Tuvaluan capital Funafuti, a small atoll 4,000km north-east of Sydney, with Mr Morrison arriving on Wednesday.

Climate change will be the central issue of the week-long meeting, along with economic development, maritime security and marine pollution.

Pacific nations have been increasingly vocal in the lead-up to the meeting in their demands for Australia to take stronger action on climate change.

CONTRIBUTOR | Asia Times / AFP

SYDNEY - Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape has backtracked on an announcement saying he had asked China to refinance the country’s $8 billion debt, insisting the statement was released without his knowledge.

A statement from his office on Tuesday said Marape had asked China’s ambassador for help in refinancing the country’s K27 billion public debt during a meeting in Port Moresby.

But on Wednesday afternoon, Marape’s office released a new statement saying it was “false” that he was “going one way to China” to tackle the country’s debt.

He said PNG was primarily discussing trade with China while examining debt options with undisclosed “non-traditional partners.”

KATE LYONS | The Guardian | Extracts

SYDNEY - Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape has dealt a blow to Australian diplomacy by asking China to refinance his country’s debt.

The request marks a “significant shift” in regional politics and PNG’s allegiances, according to Pacific experts.

Australia has traditionally been the largest aid donor and most important ally of PNG, but in recent years ties between China and PNG have strengthened.

PNG’s prime minister, James Marape, visited Australia two weeks ago at the invitation of his counterpart, Scott Morrison, in his first international visit since becoming the Pacific nation’s leader at the end of May.

CONTRIBUTOR | Asia Times

PORT MORESBY- Papua New Guinea has asked Beijing to refinance its K27 billion debt, in a request likely to rile Australia and the United States as they try to maintain their influence in the Pacific in the face of a rising China.

Beijing has been strengthening ties with PNG and other Pacific nations by increasing engagement and offering loans for infrastructure, prompting both the US and Australia to launch their own charm offensives in the region to keep traditional allies on side.

Less than two weeks after traveling to Australia on his first trip abroad as leader, PNG prime minister James Marape announced on Tuesday that he had asked China’s ambassador for help in refinancing the country’s K27billion public debt during a meeting in Port Moresby.

“He stated that a formal letter would be forwarded to the ambassador to convey to Beijing on this request,” Marape’s office said in a statement.

NEWS DESK | PNG Today | Edited

PORT MORESBY - Papua New Guinea’s prime minister James Marape has requested that China enter a free trade arrangement (FTA) with PNG and Pacific Island countries to boost the economy of the region.

Marape made these request at a meeting with the Chinese ambassador to PNG, Xue Bing, saying he was mindful that a similar arrangement with Australia and New Zealand was under review to ensure it seeks tangible outcomes.

The meeting agenda included PNG refinancing its K27 billion debt with China, the upcoming Third China-Pacific Islands economic cooperation forum to be held in Samoa in October, and forthcoming Pacific Islands Forum meetings to be held in Tuvalu this month.

“I also suggested for Chinese investment in the Agriculture and Fisheries sector, and in particularly establishing down streaming processing plants for products in forestry, fisheries, mining and petroleum, and general food production and supply in PNG,” Marape said.

Bing raised concerns with forum hosted by Tuvalu which has diplomatic relations with Taiwan and urged PNG to support China to allow it to speak at the forum meeting at which China wants to deliver a statement on strengthening relations in the region.

Marape maintains that all nations are sovereign states and that each forum member is entitled to decide on who its external partners are.

He said PNG’s One China Policy has always been the cornerstone of relations with China. Given this and favourable relations with China, PNG will support China on regional issues of mutual importance.

Bing briefed Marape on China’s investments in PNG and said they were much less compared with PNG’s other development partners. China’s two major projects are Ramu Nickel and the Porgera gold mine.

The two men also exchanged views on global food security and discussed entering an agricultural cooperation arrangement to supply PNG organic food and vegetables to the Chinese market and entering an agreement for Chinese Investors to build fisheries processing plants in PNG.

Bing invited Marape to China to “consolidate” agreement on key issues including air services, tourism, mining, petroleum, electricity, roads, ports, education, the Chinese language curriculum to be introduced in schools, and encouraging business investment from China.

Marape said all business investors and other officials traveling to PNG would be facilitated by the PNG Embassy in Beijing so meetings with senior government officials and ministers are properly coordinated.

Manus governor Charlie Benjamin (Mike Bowers)

HELEN DAVIDSON | Guardian Australia

CANBERRA - The Australian and Papua New Guinean governments have failed the people of Manus Island, who did Australia a favour in hosting its offshore immigration centre only to be left with “bad memories” and no infrastructure, the province’s governor has said.

Charlie Benjamin, who joined PNG prime minister James Marape for an official visit to Australia last week, also opposed the forthcoming joint US-Australia military base, chiefly because of the way Australia treated Manus Island over the past six years.

“The enormity and importance of this program to Australia – stopping the boat people – was very successful,” he told Guardian Australia in an exclusive interview.

James Marape - ridding Papua New Guinea of corruption is one of his major goals

PHIL FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - In 2005, the late Ulli Beier published ‘Decolonising the Mind’, an account of his time as a lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea between 1967 and 1971.

The book was published by Pandanus Books, established in 2001 by the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University and eventually discontinued in 2006 following budget cuts.

While it existed Pandanus was a prolific publisher of, among other things, Papua New Guinean matters for both an academic and general readership.

Its demise cut off a valuable tool for furthering an understanding of the Papua New Guinean and Australian relationship.

James Marape - "If we disintegrate up here, it affects Australia too”

HELEN DAVIDSON | Guardian Australia | Extract

SYDNEY - Australia has a responsibility to protect the Pacific region from the impacts of climate change, PNG’s newly appointed prime minister has said.

James Marape told the Guardian that Australia had “a moral responsibility … to the upkeep of the planet”, particularly given the extreme effect it was having on smaller Pacific nations.

“I don’t intend to speak from Canberra’s perspective, they have their own policy mindset, but as human beings I know they will respond to the moral obligation that is prevalent amidst us, that we are environmentally sensitive to the needs of others.”

He said the voices of smaller island nations must be listened to.

“As big countries in the Pacific – Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand – we have a sense of responsibility to the smaller island countries, because displacement of these smaller communities will first and foremost be our neighbourhood responsibility,” Marape said.

JARRYD DE HAAN | Future Directions International

PERTH - On the second day of his recent visit to Australia, Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison both agreed to begin negotiations to develop a comprehensive strategic and economic partnership.

In a press conference following the meeting, Morrison announced $250 million worth of investment into electricity and $79 million worth of commitments in health programs.

The announcement that both leaders would negotiate deeper strategic and economic ties will be a welcome move for bilateral relations.

Defence force chiefs - PNG's Major General Gilbert Toropo and Australia's Lieutenant General Angus Campbell

COLIN PACKHAM | Reuters

SYDNEY - Australia will create a new military unit dedicated to training and assisting Pacific allies, as Canberra accelerates plans to undercut Chinese influence in the region.

Australia, which long enjoyed virtually unchecked influence in the Pacific, and its Western allies worry that the region has edged closer to China in recent years as Beijing increases aid to the sparsely populated region and its resource-rich oceans.

Australia has channelled ever larger amounts of aid to the region in a bid to counter China's growing presence but defence minister Linda Reynolds said Canberra would also broaden its courtship of the Pacific to include stronger military ties.

"The Pacific Support Force will employ a mobile training team approach to strengthen capacity, resilience and interoperability throughout the region in areas such as security operations, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and peacekeeping," Reynolds said in a statement.

James Marape - unhappy with Australia's delays in removing refugees from Manus (EMTV)

DAVID CROWE | Sydney Morning Herald | Extract

CANBERRA – Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison is facing new calls to remove all refugees from Manus Island as political leaders from Papua New Guinea call for the "full closure" of the asylum seeker process on the island.

PNG prime minister James Marape said he had "expressed clearly" to home affairs minister Peter Dutton the need for a schedule and timetable to shut the "entire asylum processes" by resettling hundreds of refugees.

James Marape says he wants a timetable in place to resettle refugees on Manus Island but has denied any asylum seekers are in detention.

"As PNG has always stood in to assist Australia in times of need, as it has done for us also, we will ensure that we have a mutually workable timetable and closure program that is healthy for all of us – but more importantly, healthy for those people who have been part of us in Manus and PNG," Mr Marape said.

James Marape and Scott Morrison - PNG's relationships with China "nothing to do with Australia"

ROD McGUIRK | Associated Press

CANBERRA — Papua New Guinea's prime minister said today his country's relationship with China is not open to discussion during his current visit to Australia.

Prime Minister James Marape is making his first visit to Australia since he became leader of its nearest neighbour and former colony in May.

His visit comes as Australia attempts to counter China's growing influence in the South Pacific by teaming with the United States and Japan to finance infrastructure in Pacific island states that the Chinese have aggressively wooed with loans and aid.

Marape said before his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday that China's relationship with his nation was none of Australia's business.

"We'll discuss PNG-Australia relations with Australia and we'll leave the PNG and China relationship with our discussions with our counterparts in China," Marape told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

MITCHELL THOMAS | Organisation for World Peace | Edited

HOUSTON, USA - The remote highlands regions of Papua New Guinea has recently been the subject of international attention in the wake of a brutal massacre.

The remote village of Karida saw an outbreak of tribal violence last week as part of ongoing conflicts in some of the country’s most remote provinces.

While tribal conflict and warfare have historically been an issue for PNG, the rate and escalation of violence has increased in recent years.

This is due in a large part to the provision of high-powered weapons that has led to a marked change in the way conflict has unfolded.

The G20 leaders in Osaka - no doubt they are committed to tackling corruption, on paper

EMILIA BERAZATEGUI | Transparency International

BERLIN - After 11th-hour negotiations at the recent G20 summit in Osaka, the assembled leaders reached consensus on a communiqué through which they sought to identify shared solutions to some of the most pressing challenges faced by the global community.

Anti-corruption featured far more prominently in this program than in previous years, and the G20 adopted new commitments and resources for tackling this major threat to sustainable development that works for all.

So, where do we go from here?

After engaging with the G20 throughout the process and attending the Summit, here are our four main anti-corruption takeaways from the 2019 G20.

Boniface Kaiyo - 'James Marape faces key challenges including the failure of Australia’s aid assistance to PNG'

BONIFACE KAIYO

PORT MORESBY - Papua New Guinea is in a region at a crossroads. One road takes it towards open markets, inclusive growth and a dynamic economy. The other takes it backwards towards protectionism, exclusion and regional economic slowdown.

Sandwiched in between is foreign aid. In the more than four decades since independence, aid and international development have had a decisive role to play in creating a platform for the country’s e future.

Now, the challenges facing Australia’s aid to PNG have emerged more starkly in light of China’s increasing presence and competition with the US in the region.

Since recently assuming office as PNG’s eighth prime minister, James Marape has made no bones of what he intends to do.

He’s said he will “tweak” the country’s resource laws, a change which seems set to affect the interests of international actors including foreign direct investors. This is in the context of PNG’s resource owners, who have been left waiting for a promised kina windfall which has remained far out of reach.

One view of Marape’s statement is that he is placing PNG’s Chinese connection more highly than his predecessor Peter O’Neill. But Marape must be careful to promote PNG’s national interest. This seems to be a clear gamble.

China's total Pacific aid (Lowy Institute)

TERENCE WOOD | Devpolicy Blog

CANBERRA - The Guardian newspaper is far from the worst offender in reporting on Chinese aid.

(That award goes to the Sunshine Coast Daily, which helpfully told readers last year that “China almost has Australia surrounded”).

The Guardian is, however, guilty of repeatedly making misleading statements about how much aid China gives to the Pacific.

Others are also doing this, but The Guardian’s reporting combines all the main errors in a few short sentences. As a result, it’s a great teaching tool.

In 2018, The Guardian published an article claiming:

Distinguished PNG journalist Scott Waide. Newton Cain asks if Australia is signalling to the PNG leadership that answering questions from the media is something you only do when it suits you

TESS NEWTON CAIN | Twitter | Edited

“Senator Marise Payne, Australia's foreign affairs minister, made a brief visit to Papua New Guinea and Bougainville late this week….

"The Australian High Commission in Port Moresby had told local journalists in no uncertain terms that there would be no opportunity to ask Payne questions about her visit.

"This was not the first time the High Commission has shown such gross discourtesy to the PNG media, who have previously been excluded from interviews, official lunches and even media conferences.”

– Keith Jackson in PNG Attitude yesterday

BRISBANE - As I’ve discussed before [see for example, here and here] this type of behaviour on the part of Australian ministers when visiting PNG and other Pacific countries is more than bad manners.

It is a worrying sign that the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby assumes it is entitled to dictate access to a sovereign nation’s media.

Marise Payne - igat poret long toktok wantaim ol nius raita

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - Senator Marise Payne, Australia's foreign affairs minister, made a brief visit to Papua New Guinea and Bougainville late this week.

In Port Moresby she met with prime minister James Marape, deputy prime minister Davis Steven and a number of other ministers.

After the lightning trip, Payne issued a media release saying her visit "was an opportunity to further strengthen Australia’s relationship with our close friend and neighbour".

Of course, every time PNG is mentioned by an Australian official, there is a brag about the "relationship".

So how then does this work out in practice?

NBC radio station Tribe FM was able to tell us, reporting that the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby had told local journalists in no uncertain terms  that there would be no opportunity to ask Payne questions about her visit.

Never again, surely. In 1994, from a hilltop position, Bougainville Revolutionary Army guerrillas observe the Papua New Guinea Defence Force garrison at Koromira (Ben Bohane/Australian War Memorial)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – Two apparently unconnected events in Bougainville and its neighbouring and culturally related Solomon Islands have highlighted to a looming Australian dilemma in Bougainville.

If the autonomous Papua New Guinean province votes for independence in an October referendum, a decision requiring approval from the PNG parliament, how will Australia respond?

Earlier this month, as the Bougainville and PNG governments announced they had further refined the referendum choices for Bougainville’s political future, the Australian government announced a $250 million aid program for Solomon Islands.

In addition, Australia said it will provide $3 million in loans to Solomon’s workers who want to come to Australia under labour schemes as well as funding a new building for its prime minister's office and foreign affairs ministry.

The ABC commented that this “swift redesign of parts of the aid program [signalled] Australia's determination to reinforce its influence in the Pacific as strategic competition intensifies and China continues to pour resources into the region.”

One of the Chinese ships in Sydney Harbour last week (Bianca De Marchi)

JAMIE TARABAY | New York Times

SYDNEY — For years, the graduating classes of Australia’s military training programs studied Dari and Pashto, the languages of distant war-torn lands, eschewing the Bahasa and the Pidgin of Asia-Pacific nations close to home.

But as Australian forces wind down their presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they have served alongside American troops since the early 2000s, they are renewing their focus on Australia’s island neighbours, which have become a different kind of battleground as China seeks to expand its influence in the region.

Australia has always tried to maintain military forces near home strong enough to deter any potentially hostile power from moving into the South Pacific.

But in recent decades, it has not faced such a challenge in the region, and instead has sent its troops again and again to support the United States in faraway conflicts.

As seen from my hotel room - the flat stretch of bitumen foreshore  middle right contains about 150 vehicles purchased for APEC and never used

KEITH JACKSON

PORT MORESBY - From the window of my room in the Grand Papua, I have a magnificent westward view up Fairfax Harbour, with the remnants of the Macdhui still visible, but barely, in the middle distance.

Closer to my vantage point is a large flat expanse of freight concourse abutting a wharf.

The concourse is laden with vehicles – perhaps 100 buses and 50 people movers – neatly parked.

These are just some of the conveyances imported for the APEC summit last year. A few kilometers inland, in the less salt corrosive atmosphere near Bomana gaol, are the infamous 40 Maseratis.

It is these expensive, unused, unemployed and now derelict vehicles which an oaf of a minister claimed to have ‘pre-sold’ in a futile and false attempt to escape public mockery and anger.

Marise Payne says Australia would be "brave to predict" the future of its offshore refugee processing deal if PNG gets a new government

MICHAEL BACHELARD & RICHARD BAKER | The Age with AAP | Extract

MELBOURNE - Australia would be "brave to predict" the future of its offshore processing deal with Papua New Guinea after the country's prime minister announced his resignation, according to foreign minister Marise Payne.

PNG prime minister Peter O'Neill said on Sunday he would resign after seven years at the helm as it became clear the Opposition had enough numbers to topple him in parliament this week.

It is unclear who will replace Mr O'Neill, though he wants to hand over his job to former two-time PNG prime minister Sir Julius Chan, 79.

Mr O'Neill was Australia's key partner when it came to negotiating and then maintaining arrangements to keep 550 refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island even after the country's High Court found the detention centre was unconstitutional.

Scott Morrison with Peter O'Neill - stepping in where angels fear to tread

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison has praised Peter O’Neill even as the Papua New Guinea prime minister fights the battle of his political life against a resurgent opposition that seems set to command a majority in the country’s Haus Tambaran.

Yesterday afternoon O’Neill announced his resignation after seven years as national leader but has not yet formalised this position as is required by the PNG constitution.

Ben Packham in The Australian newspaper reports this morning that Australian officials are “closely watching the political fallout from the move”.

But Morrison gave O’Neill a protective boost yesterday by talking of his “strong friendship and relationship” with the struggling prime minister.

FRANCIS NII

KUNDIAWA - The political games continue in Australia’s closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, as a parliamentary vote of no confidence in prime minister Peter O’Neill gets closer.

There are many tactical twists and turns, with one of the hottest issues at the moment being an allegation questioning whether O’Neill is an Australian citizen, which would have barred his election to parliament.

A week ago the member for Madang, Bryan Kramer, raised the eyebrows of many Facebook users when he posted an article alleging that O’Neill was an Australian citizen.

Stephen Howes - positive change is possible

STEPHEN HOWES | Devpolicy News | Australian National University

CANBERRA - Aid hardly rated a mention during the 2019 Australian election campaign. Shadow foreign minister Penny Wong talked about it, and Labor promised more aid. The Liberals eventually put out a foreign policy statement, which defends their record on aid but promises nothing new.

But will it just be business as usual? Aid is a policy domain with enormous ministerial discretion. As Ben Day has argued, it is one area where a foreign minister can actually make a difference.

And the Coalition will be under pressure.

Their unconvincing climate change policy will be a constant target for Pacific criticism. PNG’s ongoing economic woes, corruption scandals, and health crisis will put pressure on the government to get a better return from our biggest aid program.

Richard Herr - "A perception that Canberra has drifted away from the regional consensus on climate change, development priorities and economic relations"

RICHARD HERR | Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)

CANBERRA - Just why the concept of soft power has become such an accepted explanation for the spread of Chinese influence in the Pacific islands is something of a conundrum.

(The term ‘Pacific islands’ is used here with the narrow meaning of the small member states of the Pacific Islands Forum.)

There seems to be little evidence that regional states have the sort of admiration for, and desire to emulate, China’s political or economic systems in the way Joseph Nye framed his idea about the attractive power of non-coercive influence.

It was the geopolitics of the Cold War that motivated China to seek a place in the Pacific island sun, not some soft-power pull from regional states seeking to a model to follow.

And, for nearly two decades afterwards, Beijing scarcely made a ripple in the regional lagoon, which ended with a flurry of ‘dollar diplomacy’ competition with Taipei for recognition.

Peter O'Neill and Xi Xinping - "China highly appreciates PNG for prioritising relations with China in its diplomacy"

NEWS EDITOR | Xinhua

BEIJING - Chinese president Xi Jinping has met with Papua New Guinea prime minister Peter O'Neill at the second belt and road forum for international cooperation.

Recalling his state visit to PNG in November 2018, Xi said the relationship between China and PNG is at the best period in history.

He said China highly appreciates PNG for prioritising relations with China in its diplomacy and giving solid support to China on issues concerning China's core interests.

“China supports PNG in choosing a development path on its own that is in line with its national conditions.

“China is willing to work with PNG to strengthen coordination and cooperation under the multilateral framework, so as to enhance the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.”

Grant Hehir -  leading the inquiry delving deep into possible corruption in PNG and Australia in the Paladin Manus  detention centre contract

MEDIA STATEMENT

PORT MORESBY – Former prime minister and MP for Moresby North-West, Sir Mekere Morauta, says an Australian government inquiry into the granting of contracts relating to the Manus detention centre should consider the possibility of official corruption involving senior Papua New Guinean politicians and bureaucrats.

The inquiry, being conducted by Australia’s auditor-general Grant Hehir will cover all aspects of government contracts for Manus and Nauru and will report next year.

Sir Mekere said anecdotal evidence suggests Australian taxpayers’ money may have been secretly used as slush funds to prop up the prime ministership of Peter O’Neill.

“It seems clear the PNG government put pressure on the Australian government and department of home affairs to appoint Paladin as the garrison services and security contractor for Manus,” Sir Mekere said.

Chris Overland

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE – Yesterday’s article by Yu Lei is illuminating for many reasons. As other PNG Attitude readers have also observed, the choice of language alone is revealing.

Like Paul Oates commented, I believe credit has to go to the Chinese government for heaving the entire country into the modern era in a stunningly short period of time. The increase in wealth and opportunities afforded to Chinese people generally has been nothing short of astounding.

That said, it has come at a considerable price in terms of individual liberty, the environment, the conspicuous absence of the rule of law and a good deal of human suffering for those who have not fallen into line with the ruling party's dictates.

Also, it is fair to say that China has been quite willing to steal the knowledge and technology required to achieve its economic miracle. It has done this on a large scale.

Now, with confidence in itself and its manifest destiny to become the paramount power in the world, the Chinese government is revealing itself as the ruthlessly autocratic regime that it has always been.