STAFF: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being here today.
It is my honor to introduce Prime Minister Marape and U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin for today’s press briefing. The Prime Minister and the Secretary will each deliver opening remarks and then each have time to take a couple of questions. Please note that I will moderate those questions and call on journalists.
Mr. Prime Minister, over to you, sir.
PRIME MINISTER JAMES MARAPE: Thank you very much and to the media who has sought out for this important occasion, let me thank for your presence. Thank Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is the third Lloyd Austin — oh, second Lloyd Austin to be in PNG territory. The first was his father, who served in the World War II, and he was here. And now Secretary Austin has embraced us all in his capacity as Secretary of Defense.
And I did welcome him for a very good, fruitful bilateral meeting upstairs in the presence of our Deputy Prime Minister and also ministers, including our Defense Minister. He also, likewise, should (inaudible) well in assuring us our bond and our togetherness as we have been in the past, but more importantly, today, going forward into the future.
Secretary Austin comes to the back of Secretary of State Mr. Blinken’s visit to us, who, long ago, he visited us at the back of his visit with it signed the Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States of America. At the back of that signing, Secretary Austin now visits us.
Secretary Austin, for the benefit of Papua New Guinea media and Papua New Guinea, is the Chief Advisor to the United States’ President, President Biden. In capacity — in his capacity as Secretary of Defense, all matters in relation to defense within U.S. and outside of U.S. goes through him into cabinet and into the White House. And so, Papua New Guinea is once again graced with a high — high delegation led by the — Secretary Austin. Their visit brings to us further conversation in regards to how PNG and U.S. will work in this time where we will now be working under the ambit of our shared cooperation in the Defense Cooperation Agreement we’ve had.
He’s indicated to us in the meeting upstairs that, in around September, a visit would be made by people from the U.S. defense in looking at key infrastructure development in our country. Starting with Lae, the presence will be in Lae and what is designated to be a strong U.S. base in respect to disaster management and operations in our country. They will step into Lae and have a look around on what needs to be done. We put to him in that meeting our need for fuel, and energy security, and fuel bunkering as one of the earlier tasks that should be looked at mutually between both sides and for their capacities to be brought in — into this space.
A lot more work will be happening. Parliament will fully dispense what is now outstanding of the Defense Cooperation Agreement, as well as the certification of the ship-rider agreement. This will now mean that U.S. capacities to partner our defense capacity at our invitation will take place as we work to ramp-up Papua New Guinea and U.S. defense engagements.
Deep in these engagements lies the economic conversation that my government has been driving, USA, and the leadership under President Biden is sensitive to the fact that our economy needs to grow. In this DCA conversation also, as well as the — all the other subsidiary arrangements that will take place, lies employment, job creation, contract opportunities, as well as further U.S. businesses, including manufacturers who will be coming into our country at the back of benefits that will cascade from the deep relationship we will have with USA and also U.S. military going forward into the future.
So this is just not a conversation on military-to-military engagements, deep from PNG’s context lies our economic independence conversation, protection of our waters from illegal fishing and illegal forest transportations, protection of our economy from transnational crimes, keeping secure our borders, and to ensure we account for every visitors into our country and step up of our own defense force.
In the process in the next 15 years, we should see our defense force comparable and operational, not just for local missions, but more importantly, and Secretary Austin did indicate, our work and training and exchange with U.S. military, and so our defense capacities will also be stepped up.
Our Secretary — our guest Secretary Austin will be visiting Murray Barracks after this conversation. And the work starts now in the — and engagements between our defense and their defense, as well as, more importantly, the other work that will flow on from our shared agreement that we’ve signed in as far as the Defense Cooperation Agreement is concerned.
I look forward to taking further questions. I’ll — I want to also indicate he did — he did announce that, in August, the head of USAID will come in PNG also. They’ve indicated a relocation of the USAID reporting to a Manila office. Papua New Guinea will have its own USAID office in PNG and, hopefully, possibility of looking into — relating to — to the other Pacific nations around us, more importantly, the Western Pacific nations.
So, Secretary Austin, let me thank you for being the second in the Austin family to step in our territory and our space. We look forward to a few more visits from yourself, and hopefully from your own family, more visits from generations that will come after you. But more importantly, our nation-to-nation relationship is anchored, and our people-to-people relationship can flow on from this benefit.
Secretary Austin?
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD J. AUSTIN III: Mr. Prime Minister, thanks for the warm welcome and the kind words. It is indeed an honor to meet with you today to advance our bilateral defense cooperation and deepen the relationship between the United States and Papua New Guinea. And I’m very proud to be here as the first U.S. Secretary of Defense to visit Papua New Guinea.
Now, the Indo-Pacific is our priority theater, and partnerships like ours are critical to keeping this vital region free and open. So today we discussed several key steps that we’ve taken in recent months to advance our shared goals, both bilaterally with Papua New Guinea and together with other partners in the region.
We’re expanding U.S. participation in several exercises with the PNG Defense Force. We’ve also completed an important ship-rider agreement that will mean greater cooperation on maritime law enforcement. This agreement will help us tackle illegal fishing and trafficking in your country’s exclusive economic zone. And we’re not wasting any time.
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter will be here in August to kick this program off. We also discussed the new Defense Cooperation Agreement. It will deepen our ties, strengthen cooperation between our forces, and help the United States better support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Once the DCA is ratified, we’ll accelerate our efforts to help you as you continue to modernize your defense force. That includes working together on investing in upgraded defense facilities.
And Mr. Prime Minister, on behalf of President Biden, thank you for your support of the DCA. And as your parliament reviews the DCA, I want to reiterate our commitment to your country’s sovereignty and autonomy as we strengthen our mutually beneficial partnership.
And finally, Mr. Prime Minister, if you’ll permit me, I want to acknowledge that, back home, it is an historic day for the U.S. military. And 75 years ago, on July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which ended segregation in the U.S. military. That landmark order demanded equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces, without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.
And, of course, ever since America’s founding, black Americans have served in the U.S. military with honor and courage. And many of them made the ultimate sacrifice, and they stood up for America even in times when America didn’t stand up for them. So we pause to reflect on their valor and on how far we’ve come.
Ending segregation made our military stronger and more truly American. And it made it possible for me to be standing here today as a proud U.S. Army veteran. So we pay tribute to those who suffered and served before the integration of the U.S. military and to those who have shown such valor after the old barriers came tumbling down.
And 75 years later, we still hold this truth to be self-evident, that all people are created equal. So it’s a proud and solemn day for America. And even though I’m far from home, I’m glad to be able to share it among friends.
Mr. Prime Minister, thanks again for your gracious hospitality. And I look forward to working with you to find ways to do even more together and to build a peaceful and prosperous future for generations to come. Thank you everyone, and we’ll take your questions.
STAFF: Thank you both, gentlemen. Our first question will come from Gorethy Kenneth, Post-Courier.
STAFF: Thank you.
Q: Good morning. (Inaudible)
SEC. AUSTIN: Well, thanks for the question. In regard to our efforts to build a network of allies and partners, I would remind you that the United States of America is a Pacific nation. And so, we are very much interested in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Now, we share that vision with a number of countries in this region and countries — and countries around the world, quite frankly. And so that is — has been our focus. It will continue to be our focus. And as a part of that, we conduct operations and exercises. And those exercises and operations are designed to strengthen the rules-based international order.
We’re also working hard to help our allies and partners acquire additional capability and expand their capacity. And that will help them in the future defend their own sovereignty.
And again, I think as we go along, you see us doing more and more with like-minded countries, like Australia and Japan, to increase capacity, increase interoperability. And all of that is focused on making sure that we can maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific.
STAFF: Thank you very much. Next question, we’ll go to Peter Martin, Bloomberg.
Q: Thank you very much. Secretary Austin, there are reports this morning that Ukraine has begun a major push along the southeast of the country. Are those reports accurate? And what are the chances of a major breakthrough?
[And for President Marape] Whad does the Defense Cooperation Agreement with the U.S. brings for PNG. Does it run the risk at PNG becoming caught between the U.S. and China? And will you consider us still a defense agreement with Beijing?
SEC. AUSTIN: In terms of the details of how the fight is progressing , I I will allow the Ukrainian government to speak to that. We said throughout that this would be a tough fight, and it would be, you know, a long fight. And there will be challenges, successes, setbacks. And so, we’ve seen a great bit of that play out to this point.
Ukraine is well-prepared and well-trained to be successful. And as you heard me say last week, they fought hard. They’ve been working their way to get through the minefields and other obstacles, but they still have a lot of combat power.
And when and how they decide to commit that combat power, Peter, will be based upon the assessment of their leadership, based upon what’s going on, on the ground.
And if done so at the right time, hopefully, that will create opportunities that would maybe enable them to change the dynamics on the battlefield. But they’ve been very deliberate. They’ve been serving manpower and equipment, and so they still have a number of options available to them. And we can expect that they’ll continue to press.
But in terms of the details of the fight and how that’s proceeding, I think it’s best that the Ukrainian leadership convey that.
PM MARAPE: All right. Thank you, Secretary Austin. In case you wonder from the PNG side why the question to Secretary Austin on the Ukraine war, he’s the boss of the entire Department of Defense in USA. He’s no small man that has visited us. He is the top of the entire U.S. defense force. He has come at the back of the signing of the DCA we did with Secretary Blinken. And so, he was able to fill in the question of what’s happening outside.
Coming home to what is really the DCA for Papua New Guinea, it means infrastructures are developed, not just our defense infrastructures and utilities, but more importantly, the support, supporting infrastructures in and around where the footprint of defense presence will be, as well as right across our country. So I’m looking forward to the full rollout of the 15-year program we have with U.S. defense force.
You see, nations around us like South Korea return from Seoul. They have over possibly easily 30,000 U.S. defense professionals moving in and out, and they have big presence there. Japan, big presence in Japan. Philippines, big presence in Philippines.
If we look at nations like Singapore, they have specific enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with USA, as well as Australia, Indonesia. We’re not doing something new.
Similar to what nations have in the region with USA, we decided instead of having a generic agreement with U.S. military under the Status of Forces Agreement of 1989, we felt as our nation measures into facing 50 years of independence, our defense capacity must be built up. And there is no better place than to partner the biggest democracy and the biggest military for this partnership. It is a partnership of choice that we made in respect to our defense-to-defense cooperation, but, of course, with the cascading benefit that links to economy and, more importantly, key economic infrastructures for our country including fuel bunkering.
There were few months back we had the defense or Navy — U.S. Navy ship who was having a mayday call in respect to fuel need in this part of the world. And other places had no opportunity to serve fuel to that ship as a partner. We invited the ship to come to Port Moresby to refuel up and set sail.
That’s a relationship that is — was happening on an ad-hoc basis. Today, under DCA, we will have more structured relationship with U.S. military going forward. So our military stands to benefit. But more importantly, below our military or with our military, the economy and the country-to-country relationships will be strengthened going forward.
In respect to China, you know, some nations in a bilateral level you have specific defense bilateral with. With China, we have specific economic bilateral relationship, and it sticks in that space. They have not made any request to us for military relationships. It is the media that keeps on going on and on about China.
When we were signing the DCA with USA, Chinese government through the embassy here did relay to us they have no issue whatsoever with us signing the DCA with USA. And they are mindful of the fact that some shared values we have with USA that is not shared with other nations around the world.
And for the Defense Cooperation, it is a deliberate choice of partnership we have with USA. Some nations will not be privileged in that space, but we will also likewise not compromise our own relations with China and other nations. We relate especially in other government-to-government relations and business-to-business relations with them. More so from the China context, it is economic and trade relationship that ranks number one.
STAFF: Thank you, Prime Minister. Our next question will go to Rebecca Kuku, The National.
STAFF: Check.
Q: Secretary Austin, the U.S. presence here in PNG will mean passage of its core ships, subways and aircraft, which might carry nuclear. PNG is responsible to our own nuclear-free philosophy. Will the U.S. risk at this position by not deploying nuclear power vessels to PNG territory? Also, U.S. presence in PNG means enemies of potential enemies of the U.S. [which could pull] PNG in some future armed conflict, how can the U.S. protect PNG if that was to happen?
SEC. AUSTIN: Thanks, Rebecca. With respect to the PNG’s nuclear-free stance, I would tell you from the very outset that this relationship is built on mutual respect. And we respect Papua New Guinea’s position on nuclear matters, and we look forward to continuing our work together in close consultation.
Again, as you heard me say earlier, this is really about strengthening our ability to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific and protecting the rules based international order. And, you know, we will remain focused on that. We’ll continue to work with alike-minded nations and nations who share our vision for that free and open Indo-Pacific.
Again, I think the DCA reflects our shared values, and again, the relationship is really about those values. And so, I think there are a lot of opportunities that are in front of us, and we’ll work on those opportunities. In terms of any type of action by anyone against Papua New Guinea in the future, I won’t get involved in hypotheticals. But again, I would tell you that our goal is to make sure that we strengthen PNG’s ability to defend itself and protect its interests.
And this is a relationship that’s built on respect. And we look forward to some great work going forward here, so.
STAFF: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Our final question will go to Ryo Nakamura, Nikkei.
Q: Thank you very much for taking my question. To Secretary Austin first, with regards to the bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreement, I wonder how critical is it for the U.S. military to have access to Papua New Guinea in terms of advancing distributed force posture in the region? And what message are you sending to China by closer defense cooperation with Papua New Guinea?
And Prime Minister Marape, there have been growing concerns about Chinese aggression toward Taiwan. Are you open to allowing the U.S. to use military facilities or infrastructures in your territory in case of a conflict over the Taiwan Strait.
SEC. AUSTIN: Thanks, Ryo. Our is on strengthening peace, and stability, and prosperity in the region — in the Indo-Pacific. And as you’ve heard me say a couple of times already today, we have a long-standing relationship with Papua New Guinea, and we share that vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. And we both really respect the rules-based — and value the rules-based international order.
The DCA builds upon decades of defense work, defense relationships, and defense cooperation. And I think the DCA will go a long ways in terms of helping us to do the things that are necessary to work together to expand PNG capacity, to modernize their force, and to increase interoperability.
And I just want to be clear that we’re not seeking permanent basing in PNG. This is a fundamental — a foundational framework to deepen that defense relationship that, again, goes back decades. So the common values that we have, I think, are really, really important. And this is an opportunity to expand upon a long-standing relationship that’s been strong throughout.
So, Mr. Prime Minister?
PM MARAPE: All right. Secretary, let me maybe go straight to the question on Taiwan. From PNG context, we respect the sovereignty of all nations, and we uphold that Taiwan, just like U.S., is within the sovereign territory of China. That stands.
USA do not need PNG’s ground to be a launching pad for any offense anywhere else in the world. When you speak to China or Taiwan, they have bases in Philippines, in Korea, elsewhere, much closer to China than PNG. My audience here in PNG are quite hyper-sensitive to these sort of questions, and they may misconstrue that Secretary Austin and the U.S. defense is building up an offensive base in PNG for any attack and, borrowing his own words, much of these are hypothetical questions, the media and the public is spinning.
If you look — care to look deeper, in the last month, we had Secretary Blinken visiting Beijing. We had Secretary Yellen visiting Beijing. We had Kissinger, former Secretary of State visiting Beijing. The world is a better place when we allow diplomacy to take precedence.
This year with USA comes at the back of diplomatic engagements. We now engage in the defense matters. At the back of this, in August again, the head of USAID is coming. This is a program for development matters that it flow.
And conversation here in this DCA is not just military conversations, far from it. Military from USA and PNG perspective, institutions of state to be deployed for deployment, safety, nation building, and U.S. Secretary of State did indicate, and now U.S. Secretary of Defense is indicating, this is for PNG first, a build of PNG defense force that has sadly been eroded in the last 47 years.
And our defense we are building is to build our country, keep our country safe, not for awards on preparation. We, in the Pacific, we’re not about war, we’re about peace, tolerance, but, of course, promoting our values of democracy, Christianity, and living well with each other. And so, USA has always been showing that — that character also in the global footprint.
And I want to give assurance to everyone here, including our friends from Asia, that this is not about setting up for war, rather, it’s about setting our presence for nation-building in Papua New Guinea and this part part of planet Earth and Indo-Pacific.
I want to thank Secretary and his answer to bring our press to a close. Thank you, Secretary for Defense. I appreciate you coming all the way. You’re not a little man yourself, four-star retired general, very high in the defense force works. And you are picked amongst many to be the head of your country’s defense force.
By the way, for us in the audience here, Papua New Guinea audience, you hear Secretary and you think he’s Secretary equivalent to Secretary John Akipe of our Defense Force. I know that secretary is equivalent to our minister, and a very high minister has arrived in — in our country.
I want to ask you all of us, this — this year in the work with U.S. Defense Force, in every step of the way, whether it’s nuclear conversations or engagement conversations, Papua New Guinea Defense Force will be at the gate in allowing them on every engagements going forward in the 15 years we’re signing this agreement. They’re not coming in to do it their way, they’re coming in through the gates of consultation. And our defense force always, going forward in the next 15 years, will be at the gates of saying yes for this operation or this aspect of our relationship, or no, every step of the way that has been secured.
I want to appreciate USA. They have never tempered with our sovereignty, and our autonomy, and our independence within the ambit and respect of sovereignty. We invited them in the defense space. It is not them coming in. We invited them in the defense space to build up our defense, to protect our own borders, including stopping theft of fish from our seas and plight of the illegal forest from our — from our forests. They came in at our invitation.
Seven prime ministers before me never invited. I’ve made this deliberate invitation to build stronger Papua New Guinea in the presence of big Asia, big Pacific before us. We’re doing this for the betterment of our country. Every step of the way, our defense force, as small as they may be, will say yes to this and no to this going forward for the next 15 years.
SEC. AUSTIN: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister. I really appreciate your hospitality. I look forward to working with you going forward, so.
(APPLAUSE)
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