Australia last week signed a two-million-dollar deal with Nauru and Papua New Guinea that analysts say will help Canberra counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific.
The deals, which support development in Nauru and promise to inject millions of dollars into the establishment of a rugby team in Papua New Guinea over the next 10 years, allow Australia to prevent the two island nations from signing security-related agreements. They also give some strength. China.
Beijing has been aggressively expanding its cooperation with islands in the Pacific in recent years, drawing concern from Australia, the US and other allies in the region.
Under the multimillion-dollar deal Australia signed with Nauru on December 9, Canberra will offer the Pacific island nation $89 million over five years, providing key development assistance in banking, telecommunications and security.
In return, Australia can veto any involvement of third countries in the Pacific island country’s security and critical infrastructure sectors.
During a signing ceremony at Australia’s Parliament House on 9 December, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the agreement as “a serious responsibility and a sign of enduring respect between our two countries”.
Nauruan President David Adiang said the treaty would help his country, which faces serious financial challenges, strengthen its economy and address critical challenges.
Mihai Sora, director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute in Australia, says Australia has to make such agreements despite the costs.
“China’s security reach in the Pacific is increasing, whether it’s through policing, or through military land, air or maritime assets, and that costs Australia’s defense posture,” Sora told VOA in a video interview. Increases.” “Closing this legal agreement with Nauru is part of Australia’s effort to maintain access and deny China access to that location.”
Last week, Australia also struck a deal with Papua New Guinea, or PNG, under which Canberra will provide $384 million over 10 years to help the Pacific island nation establish a rugby team, which will become Australia’s national rugby union team in 2028. Will start competing in the league. The funding is also expected to help build a complex to accommodate the players and offer tax breaks to recruit players.
In return, PNG signed a separate agreement that reaffirms Australia as the country’s major security partner.
While many details of both agreements are confidential, information provided by Canberra to analysts and media outlets states that if PNG signs a security agreement with a country outside the so-called “Pacific family”, the deal would allow Australia to send a rugby team to Australia. Allow withdrawal of funds for all countries, which does not include China.
“From briefings with government officials and media reports, we learned that there is a security commitment that PNG has agreed not to sign police or military agreements with China,” Sora told VOA.
Some PNG analysts say the agreement is part of Australia’s effort to build closer ties with PNG’s civil society.
“Australia realized that all this aid and budgetary support that it was giving to PNG was not translating into buying support for them at the grassroots level and since a lot of people in PNG support Australian rugby teams, [Canberra] chose a sport for which a large portion of the PNG population is passionate, with the hope that it could generate greater support for Australia at the grassroots level in PNG,” said Michael Kabuni, an analyst previously at the University of Papua New Guinea. taught, told VOA in a video interview.
During a ceremony announcing the agreement in Sydney on 12 December, PNG Prime Minister James Marape said the agreement could help his country promote domestic unity and unite PNG and Australia together “in ways that What matters most, from people to people.”
Analysts say the agreements with Nauru and PNG are part of a more “assertive” diplomatic effort in the Pacific that Australia launches in 2022 after China signed a secret security deal with the Solomon Islands.
“Many of its allies, including Australia and the United States, were surprised by the security agreement between the Solomon Islands and China, and by signing the agreement with these Pacific Island countries, Canberra shows that it wants to show itself at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Partners of choice and some Pacific states are responding,” Henryk Szadzewski, an expert on Pacific affairs, told VOA by phone.
While Australia can limit China’s security presence in the Pacific through these deals, Szadzewski said Pacific island nations could still deepen ties with Beijing in other areas, including education and trade.
“The ways in which Chinese companies can enter the economic sphere in the Pacific have not been excluded from these deals, and this has been an important way for China to make inroads in terms of influence in the Pacific,” he said. “
VOA contacted the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Australia for comment but have not yet received a response.
During a meeting with Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa in Beijing last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China would “prioritize empowering Pacific island countries to tackle climate change in its cooperation with these countries.” Wants.”
Now that Australia has gained some power to veto security deals in some Pacific countries, Sora said Canberra needs to ensure its own priorities do not overshadow the interests and needs of Pacific island countries.
“Canberra retains the role of security manager [in the Pacific] “So the challenge is to demonstrate that the security needs of Pacific countries are not subordinate and that their own priorities do not come second to Australia’s interests,” he told VOA.
“Australia’s focus will be on proving to Pacific countries that their security needs will now be better met as a result of these agreements, as anything less than that will leave them open to criticism,” Sora said.
