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China sends Papua New Guinea a clear message on vaccines

By Jeffrey Wall - posted Friday, 12 February 2021


I have no doubt this all caused consternation in Canberra.

Within a short time, the Acting PNG Foreign Minister was telling the ABC that PNG "had made no such agreement". Really?

The credibility of the Acting Minister's statement has been further eroded by confirmation by the highly regarded Covid-19 Emergency Controller, David Manning, that PNG is considering the vaccine offered by Australia AND the vaccine being offered by China!

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It is a pity the story has not received wider coverage. It will rightly embarrass the PNG Government if it becomes widely known throughout PNG that its government allegedly agreed to accept the China vaccine notwithstanding discussions between Australia and PNG over recent months on Australia's offer.

And it will infuriate the Peoples Republic of China the wider the issue is publicised.

My own "reading" of the incident, and especially the decision by the PRC to deliberately release the phone conversation with the Acting PNG Foreign Minister (or its version of the conversation), was made to "lock in" Papua New Guinea to accepting the China vaccine offer.

China believes that once PNG signed up to the "Belt and Road" program it signed up to much more than infrastructure loans.

That is why this incident ought to be causing alarm in Canberra – and in Wellington, Tokyo and Washington as well.

Papua New Guinea was a late signature to the "Belt and Road" program – Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands and Niue had already signed up. Most if not all of these smaller island nations have gained "concessional" loans from China that are already impacting on their fiscal and economic conditions.

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Australia needs to really "step up" when it comes to the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine into the region. Countries need to be told in no uncertain terms that a vaccine that has not received international approval (such as what China is offering) won't be recognised by Australia.

And the language Canberra uses in getting this message across needs to be much more direct!

If that does not happen, and if Australia is not backed by New Zealand at the very least, the countries that have signed up to "Belt and Road" may well buckle to pressure – the kind of pressure Papua New Guinea clearly had applied to it last week will be repeated elsewhere in the region.

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About the Author

Jeffrey Wall CSM CBE is a Brisbane Political Consultant and has served as Advisor to the PNG Foreign Minister, Sir Rabbie Namaliu – Prime Minister 1988-1992 and Speaker 1994-1997.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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