Recruitment in the region sits comfortably with the goal of security integration with Canberra, at a pace and scale welcomed by Pacific Island countries.
on Monday, Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape will sign amutual defence treaty known as the Pukpuk Treaty. Pukpuk is pidgin for “crocodile”.
The landmark treaty is a mutual defence alliance, a first for PNG. It’s modelled on the ANZUS treaty, with an Article 4 commitment to “act to meet the common danger” in the event of an armed attack on either country.
Australia should initiate a joint Australia and PNG project to enhance the port facilities and airfield at Milne Bay.
The treaty means PNG granting Australia free access to its landmass in the event of a major security threat. The Second World War underscored the importance of PNG’s geography to our defence, where we took the fight to the approaching Japanese forces.
In 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy saw value in Milne Bay as a maritime and aviation base from which to attack northern Australia. A substantial Japanese naval force landed on the north shore of the bay, only to be convincingly defeated. The bay then became an important Allied naval and air force base.
Given the Pukpuk Treaty, it’s time Australia invested in Milne Bay’s future. Milne Bay Province is one of three PNG provinces close to Australia that are underdeveloped, (the other two are Western and Gulf provinces). Milne Bay is the least developed. The bay is less than 1000 kilometres from Cairns – close to many of Australia’s important mineral and agricultural export ports and the shipping routes that serve them.
Australia should initiate a joint project with PNG to enhance the port facilities and airfield at Milne Bay. The bay offers better potential defensive coverage of the vital Solomon and Coral seas than Manus Island more than 1000 kilometres to the north, (where the Lombrum Naval Base has been upgraded), or Daru Island, in the shallow reef-strewn Torres Strait, where China is interested in developing maritime infrastructure. Australian forces could operate from Milne Bay in support of PNG and other Pacific Islands Forum partners. The US military may be interested in leveraging enhanced infrastructure there.
“Military service is a unique offer we can make to the Pacific that China can’t and won’t.”
Another possible PNG location to consider building up ports and bases is Lihir Island about 600 kilometres east of Manus Island. There’s a port and airstrip there, well maintained by Newmont, which operates the gold mine on the island, one of the world’s largest gold mines. Lihir Island would be a suitable place for a radar station and refuelling for patrol boats.
Australia should lift our contribution to PNG’s border security in the western Torres Strait, an area where the interests of the three littoral countries, Australia, Indonesia, and PNG, intersect, including in the very remote vicinity of the “dog leg” of PNG’s 200 hundred mile exclusive economic zone that projects into this area and is outside the provisions of the Torres Strait treaty.
A high level of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is reported to occur in this area. There is a lack of border presence in key designated PNG Torres Strait “treaty villages” in Western Province. A trilateral dialogue for maritime and border security should be established in the western Torres Strait area.
Finally, the Pukpuk Treaty opens the way for up to 10,000 Papua New Guineans to join the Australian Defence Force. Despite some recent recruiting progress, we need lots more diggers, but Generation Z, hooked to smartphones, isn’t signing up. The UK has long recruited Gurkhas from Nepal and recruits from Fiji and the West Indies.
We should consider extending the recruiting scheme to at least the other two Pacific Island states with military forces, Fiji and Tonga. Fiji already contributes to peacekeeping forces and has more than 2000 soldiers serving in the British army. Tonga’s armed forces comprise up to 600 personnel and have contributed to several peacekeeping and stability operations. Fiji and Tonga both want to pursue deeper security agreements with Australia.
Pacific recruitment sits comfortably with the goal of increasing security integration with Australia, at a pace and scale welcomed by Pacific Island countries. Military service is a unique offer we can make to the Pacific that China can’t and won’t.
This article was first published in the Australian Finanicial Review.