Leaders lacking diplomatic acumen

HOW historic is US President Joe Biden’s visit to Papua New Guinea?
There is nothing historic about Biden’s visiting PNG apart from being the first serving Potus (President of the United States) to set foot on our shores.
President Biden who is en-route to Australia is landing here because PNG is the most populous and biggest Pacific Island state and a strategic ally to US’s peace and security in the Asia-Pacific, has messed up its diplomacy.
Biden wouldn’t be arriving here with pleasantries and bags of money for cargo cult worshipping kanakas who are willing to sell anything for money.
Diplomacy is the art and science of maintaining peaceful relationships between nations and therefore if we do not know how to broker peace and ensure harmony in our own little communities then what do we know about maintaining balance at geopolitics.
PNG has had diplomatic ties with the US since 1975 through Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare’s “Friends to All and Enemies to None” foreign policy and since then there has been no revisit apart from selective engagement by succeeding governments without a broader foreign engagement framework.
Today, we have moved away from all decency of statecraft and statesmanship to “tucker box diplomacy” – selling anything and everything for a price.
We even sold project-based aid to more traditional cash budget support.
The Government we have has no respect to our foreign affairs.
The issues of statecraft that require great deliberation and skilful management have been overlooked for political meandering.
The coming of President Biden should be a wake-up call for us to readjust our foreign policy.
As the world is undergoing historic changes of profound and far-reaching impact, we need a foreign policy that will encapsulate our vision and place in the shifting dynamics of geopolitics and guide our way forward, a viable way to address our challenges, and greater strength to build relations.
Prime Minister James Marape’s “take your geopolitics elsewhere” is not the kind of statements you hear from a statesman.
Unfortunately, PNG lacks statesmen but has politicians.

David Lepi