Australian security experts are concerned about the possible military use of a Chinese-funded port in Australia’s neighboring country, and the Australian Labor Party has called on the Morrison government to ensure that the matter does not threaten Australia’s national security and fish stocks.
Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding with the Papua New Guinea government last month to build a A$132 million “integrated multi-functional fisheries industrial park” on Daru Island under the Communist Party’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
Michael Shoebridge, director of defense strategy and security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), told the Sydney Morning Herald that the development of a commercial fisheries project in the Torres Strait, where fish populations are low, was questionable and that the PNG government and Daru Islanders needed to explain what would happen when fish stocks were depleted.
“There is no good answer to this question and the other uses of the project raise alarm, which certainly involves port facilities where fishing vessels will dock”, he said.
Some Chinese fishermen are known to have received Communist military training, and Chinese fishing boats have previously helped the Chinese navy seize Philippine territory in the disputed South China Sea.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said Tuesday (Dec. 22) that the Australian government was taking the potential risks of the fisheries project seriously. “A development of any scale envisaged in the memorandum of understanding between the PNG authorities and a Chinese company raises concerns because of its potential impact on Australia’s fisheries, the environment and the traditional inhabitants of the Torres Strait.”
“The PNG government has assured us that the MOU is not binding and that any final decision will take some time.”
Daru Island is just a few kilometers from Australian waters and less than 200 kilometers from the Australian mainland.
Labor’s shadow foreign minister Penny Wong has demanded that the Morrison government must ensure Australia’s national security and fisheries resources are not threatened by the Chinese company’s fishing project, and criticized the Morrison government for “dropping the ball” on issues related to the project.
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