Pacific Island nations have welcomed the additional interest from the West but will continue to engage with China, she said. To date its engagements have been modest," she said. is trying to secure a bilateral security agreement with PNG and show it is in the region to stay and will make a positive difference. The director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute think-tank, Meg Keen, said the recent push by China into security has "raised concern among Western countries with strong national interests in the region". With China's rise, Pacific Islands airfields and undersea cables have again come into play, he added.Ĭhina is PNG's largest trading partner. was "determined to keep the former Japanese islands out of the Communist bloc because they were critical to protecting the southern flank below Japan and above Australia," he said. national security advisor.Īfter World War Two, the U.S. Michael Green, CEO of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, said it was not the first time the Pacific Islands have come to world attention during major transitions in international relations.Īt the end of World War One, the islands "consumed attention" at the 1921-22 Washington Naval Treaties amid concern over Japan's access to an undersea cable, said Green, a former senior U.S. "We will not be deterred by misinformation such as debt traps," he said, according to a government statement.
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