‘A Modest

Papua New Guinea

Mission’

From Angus Smales in Port Moresby Apart from the Coca-Cola franchises and the pop music scene which are worldwide anyway United States influ ences in Papua New Guinea are neither obvious nor wide

spread.

But politically, and to some extent economically, the influ

ences are important, although

subtle, and in the long term are

of far-reaching regional sig

nificance.

On the surface US involve ment and influences are very low-key, a situation which the US Embassy in Port Moresby is keen to maintain.

In products and trade US ve hicles have all but disappeared from the streets and even Aus tralian vehicles from Ford and General Motors subsidiaries

are rapidly disappearing under

a new wave of Japanese exports.

Lack of direct shipping links has reduced the availability of some US foodstuffs which were once popular in the higher price ranges, and a small earlier flow of domestic con

sumer goods and agricultural

aid has ended.

As one US citizen observed at a function in Port Moresby recently, ‘Our greatest export to your country seems to be missionaries’.

He was commenting on the fact that several branches of the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches still draw fairly heavily on staff and aid from the US to carry out health, edu cation and religious fieldwork in PNG.

There is still an impressive amount of US technology and

products and specialised plant

and heavy machinery, aircraft

and aviation ancillary services,

mining equipment and data

processing facilities.

But although this equipment

is of US origin or design origin, the marketing and services in fluences involved and often even the manufacturing are

largely Australian.

Even baseball, the sport syn onymous with the USA, has died out in PNG after a period of intense popularity. Baseball

in PNG first got going more than 40 years ago in the Rabaul area, and was revived and intensified after World War 11.

By the late 1950 s baseball

shared top support in Rabaul

with Rugby League and

cricket, it was followed to some extent in Port Moresby, and a national championship was held for several seasons.

Now baseball has faded, cricket and League are still there, and Australian Rules football is increasing its grip.

In the PNG economy the

biggest single operation involv

ing US investment and exper tise at present is the feasibility study for copper mining in the Star Mountains of the Western inland.

The SAM million study is being carried out by the Ok

Tedi Development Company

Pty Ltd, a consortium in which the Mount Fubilan company holds an interest of 37.5%.

Mount Fubilan is a wholly owned subsidiary of the US Amoco minerals group.

The study is due for PNG Government consideration in a few weeks and if the project be comes a reality which appears almost certain Amoco will have the option to take up a share of substantial

proportions in partnership with

the PNG Government and Australian and German interests.

In terms of direct relation

ships the major issue involving

PNG and the USA at present concerns the future of tuna fishing in the Western Pacific.

It is the source of the only real diplomatic difference between the two countries and stems from the US law of not recog

nising the sovereign rights of

coastal states towards tuna re sources inside standard 200-mile marine economic zones.

The US argument is that

tuna, being a highly migratory

species, swims in everyone’s and anyone’s waters. Accord ingly, argues the US, members of any co-operative fisheries agency should have the re

gional rights to range freely in

making their catches. US officials and diplomats who visited PNG last year, includ ing the then US ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, claimed this was an

over-hard interpretation of

their policy.

The fact remains however that PNG, and other Pacific Forum countries, claim sover eign rights in their own waters and fear that US involvement in a Western Pacific fisheries agency would disadvantage them because of the US policy coupled with its size and tech

nology.

In a submission to Congress the US State Department has recommended that a fisheries co-operative between USA and Western Pacific countries, par ticularly PNG, would give an

impetus to local regional

development. PNG accepts this in terms of fishing tech nology, but will not accept US involvement under its in terpretation of the present US stance.

In general relationships what the Americans call ‘the overview’ - the US is commit ted to non-involvement in PNG and Western Pacific re gional affairs, but clearly can not avoid holding certain views which sometimes lead to fringe involvement.

This evolves from legitimate US commitments to defence in the Trust Territory of the Pa cific Islands, commitments which become delicate within the US foreign affairs machine if pockets of instability seem likely to appear anywhere in

the region.

Accordingly US welcomes

the non-alignment policies

which are a cornerstone of PNG foreign policy, but takes a definite diplomatic stand if it believes any PNG action could contribute to regional

instability.

It appears no secret now, for instance, that US attitudes made up at least a part of the Western lobbying which per suaded PNG not to open its doors to simultaneous Chinese and Russian diplomatic missions.

The US feared unwanted tensions in the region if this

happened and apparently saw

PNG’s ‘friends of all, enemies of none’ foreign policy as a shade idealistic in this instance.

But in summary the power status of the US is an inhibiting rather than an abetting influ ence in hard-line diplomacy with a country such as PNG.

With three million people and

with rapidly unfolding re

sources, PNG is the biggest and most influential of the new micro-states of the Pacific.

Like the others it is fiercely sensitive of its national sover eignty after a history of exter nal administration, and it is far less tolerant than the older nations of what it might interpret as influence by out side powers in its affairs. It also has a stated policy of dis couraging Great Power rivalries in the region.

The US accordingly is anxious to maintain its low-key diplomacy in PNG and on a number of occasions the US embassy in Port Moresby has brought in speakers who have

taken pains to explain the pol

icy of ‘active interest without involvement’. As the recently appointed US ambassador, Harvey Feldman said in a radio interview in Port Moresby; ‘We have only a small mission here a prac tical working mission in a

friendly sovereign country’.