Events around this year’s Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) have shown how Australia and China are competing to win influence over the region, as the risk of war grows.
Solomon Islands, the host of this year’s PIF, received more than $18 million in gifts from the Australian government, including over $5 million for 61 cars for the Solomon Islands Police Force to ferry dignitaries around the conference.
China also donated 40 vehicles to the police, typifying the tit-for-tat competition between Australia and China as they try to gain favour and increase their influence.
But Australia failed to confirm its desired security agreement with Vanuatu. Another deal with PNG was eventually sealed after a delay.
Australia’s aim in the South Pacific has always been to prevent any hostile power from gaining a foothold and to ensure the Australian government is the dominant player. This is designed both to secure the investments of Australian companies such as in mining as well as ensure overall military control.
China’s growing economic and military power threatens Australia’s position.
China’s competition with Australia for security and infrastructure partnerships with countries like Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands is ringing alarm bells for Australia’s rulers who fear their influence in the Pacific is diminishing.
PNG deal
Australia has sought to sign extensive security agreements with PNG and Vanuatu to exclude China.
The PNG deal, now finalised, will see Australia provide the PNG military with billions of dollars of new weapons and equipment, allowing the PNG and Australian militaries to become “totally integrated”, according to PNG Defence Minister Billy Joseph.
Australia has already given PNG $3.1 billion worth of budget support loans over the last five years in addition to about $700 million a year in aid.
The defence treaty requires both countries to come to the other’s aid in the event of attack and entrenches Australia’s role as PNG’s main security partner.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape has justified this agreement on the basis that PNG is not strong enough to defend itself on its own
But when the agreement was initially set to be signed in September, the PNG cabinet failed to make quorum and ratify it, indicating that some of PNG’s ruling elite may not be convinced of the necessity of the agreement with Australia.
PNG, as the largest of the South Pacific nations, has always been the most important to Australia both for its mining resources and in strategic terms. It sits on the “northern approaches” that Australia’s rulers have always wanted to control.
The country recently marked 50 years since the end of Australian colonial rule, which lasted from 1906 until 1975.
Australia did little to develop the country, plundering its resources and imposing massive mining projects that created enormous environmental damage, leaving the country dependent on Australian investment and aid.
Vanuatu
The future of the Nakamal Agreement between Australia and Vanuatu is even less certain. The deal was meant to entrench Australia’s position as Vanuatu’s number one economic and security partner.
Over a decade, Australia would pour $500 million into Vanuatu’s economic, climate and security projects, with the stipulation that China be excluded from funding any critical infrastructure or security projects.
Albanese travelled to Vanuatu personally to try to secure the agreement. However, Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Jotham Napat has made it clear that the condition that excludes China from partnering with Vanuatu is the cause of the delays in signing the agreement.
China has funded key projects like roads that make travel easier and more efficient in Vanuatu, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. And Chinese police have been playing more visible roles in Vanuatu.
Over the past 20 years China has been the biggest lender in the Pacific, signing agreements with countries like Tuvalu, Tonga and Samoa.
China’s offers to provide loans and funds to Pacific nations has caused Australia’s rulers to ramp up their attempts to win favour in the region and exclude China.
A joint communique signed at the PIF declared the “Blue Pacific Continent an Ocean of Peace”. But there will be no peace for the people of the Pacific while Australia and China compete for power and control over the region’s resources, trading routes and people.
Australia is an imperialist bully that wants to dominate the region. We need to oppose its efforts to secure regional alliances against China.
Instead, unions need to be strengthening links with their counterparts in PNG, Fiji, New Caledonia/Kanaky and elsewhere to build workers’ solidarity against the Western war drive.
By Luke Ottavi
