MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2023) US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the United States was not seeking to establish permanent military bases in Papua New Guinea (PNG) against the background of expanding defense cooperation between Washington and Port Moresby and rising tensions with China.
"Our focus is on strengthening peace and stability and prosperity in the region, in the Indo-Pacific ... We have a long-standing relationship with Papua New Guinea, and we share that vision for the free and open Indo-Pacific, and we both really respect the rules-based, and value the rules-based international order. The DCA (Defense Cooperation Agreement) builds upon decades of defense work, defense relationships and defense cooperation, and I think the DCA will go a long way in terms of helping us to do the things that are necessary. We work together to expand PNG capacity, to modernize their force and to increase interoperability. And I just wanna be clear that we're not seeking permanent basing in PNG," Austin told a joint news conference with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape in Port Moresby.
Moreby added that "USA do not need PNG's ground to be a launching platform for any offensive anywhere else in the world" as the US has bases in the Philippines and South Korea, which are "much closer to China than PNG."
The official recalled that the US and PNG signed a shiprider agreement in May. Officials also negotiated and signed a landmark DCA that will deepen bilateral ties. The DCA is now being considered by the island nation's parliament.
Austin and Marape said that the DCA would allow the two countries to expand bilateral cooperation and would support the continued modernization of PNG forces, as well as work more frequently on exercises, training interoperability and defense-capacity building.
The shiprider agreement will allow PNG forces to ride along on US Coast Guard vessels patrolling the area. Austin announced that a US Coast Guard cutter will arrive in PNG in August for cooperation on "maritime law enforcement" to tackle illegal fishing and trafficking.
