China, Papua New Guinea in talks on policing, security cooperation after deadly riots

PNG will assess if the Chinese offer duplicates security and policing help already being offered by Australia and the United States, he said.

“It is still in early stages of negotiation with our Commissioner of Police and our Minister of Internal Security,” he said. “They have offered it to us, but we have not accepted it at this point in time.”

Papua New Guinea declares 2-week state of emergency after 16 killed in riots

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China is a “strong economic partner” of PNG, and the two nations formed diplomatic ties in 1975, Tkachenko said.

PNG signed a A$200 million (US$132 million) security deal with Australia last month to boost policing, and days later Prime Minister James Marape told an investment conference in Sydney that he had not held talks with China on security when he visited Beijing in October.

PNG had chosen Australia and the United States as security partners, he said.

China’s embassy complained to PNG over the safety risk to Chinese citizens living in Port Moresby.

Tkachenko said PNG would not do anything to jeopardise its defence and security relationships with Australia or the US, and was not a “fence-sitter”.

As PNG vows return to normality, will chaos mar its ties with US and China?

Australia’s Pacific Minister Pat Conroy pledged A$35 million in policing help to neighbouring East Timor on Monday during an official visit, amid concern in Canberra that Beijing is again aggressively targeting the police and security sectors in the Pacific.

Conroy will on Tuesday visit Nauru, which switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing this month.