Be careful with signing military agreements

PAPUA New Guinea is a democratic society which was colonised by the Western democratic state of Australia.
This is why many PNG laws and governing systems are similar to that of Australia.
The latest signing of a military contract between the Government and the United States of America for military cooperation, known in the US as the 505 Agreement, is a boost for PNG’s military capability and muscle to tackle transnational crimes and terrorism in our country and the region.
PNG is a sovereign nation in the Pacific and is a big economy after Australia and New Zealand.
In the past, we were in a unipolar region, which means a rising super power has hegemony over other weak and smaller states, but as years passed by, other superpowers arose and the world was in a bipolar region.
We are in a multipolar region and there is no such thing as imperialism or a super power having hegemony over others and each country is operating on its own without interference from outside influence.
Right now, there is a growing cold war type mentality between the East and West over many issues and power play.
They are playing so many tricks with aid money, projects and other things to have their influence over other countries.
The 505 Agreement is one of them because the US and China are now competing to be the world’s super power and to have hegemony over the Pacific.
The Asia Pacific geopolitics has been dominated by the strategic primacy of the US which is now changing with new economic and strategic power centres emerging.
China is modernising every aspect of its maritime-related military and law enforcement capabilities, including its naval fleet, submarines, aircraft, missiles, radar capabilities and coast guard.
It is developing high-end technologies intended to dissuade external intervention in a conflict and designed to counter US military technology.
Although preparation for a potential Chinese Taipei conflict remains the primary driver of Chinese investment, China is placing emphasis on preparing for contingencies in the East and South China Sea as well.
China sees a need for the People’s Liberation Army Navy to be able to support its new historic missions and operational tasks outside the first island chain with multi-mission, long-range, sustainable naval platforms equipped with robust self-defence capabilities.
Although quantity is only one component of its overall capability, from 2013 to last year, China launched more naval vessels than any other country in our region.
The Chinese military now possesses the largest number of vessels in Asia Pacific with more than 300 surface ships, submarines, amphibious ships and patrol craft.
China’s rising military and economic power and assertive political leadership have injected a complex dynamic into the region’s geopolitics.
According to the latest International Monetary Fund figures China’s economy when measured by purchasing power parity has surpassed that of the US unseating the latter as the world’s largest economy, a position it had held for 142 years.
It is now ready to take in all the sparsely populated islands in the South China Sea and Chinese Taipei, even by force if necessary, and we should relinquish it from its internal problem.
If there is a nuclear war, how will the PNG Defence Force protect us?
For such, a country as PNG should stop signing unnecessary military deals and remain neutral and be friends with all of them.

Punwaip Lance D Ipne
Lai Valley,
SHP