Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Port Moresby in 2018 to much fanfare, with Chinese flags hoisted across the capital and his motorcade whizzing past gathered crowds.
The trip was seen as a major diplomatic coup for Beijing.
US and Australian officials have been concerned by a rapid uptick in Chinese investment in the resource-rich Melanesian nation.
There have also been concerns that China has been trying to establish a military outpost, prompting Washington to float the idea of establishing a joint naval facility on Manus Island.
Construction started in mid-2020, according to Australia’s Department of Defence, which is also taking part in the initiative.
Four Guardian-class patrol boats are eventually expected to be based at the facility.
DIPLOMATIC BACKWATER
A series of US secretaries of state have visited in the past, including Hillary Clinton and then US vice president Mike Pence in 2018, who stepped in when president Donald Trump cancelled his attendance at a regional summit.
According to State Department records, which date back to Theodore Roosevelt’s administration in 1901, no sitting US president has visited Papua New Guinea.
But the importance of the region has come more sharply into focus since China and the Solomon Islands agreed on a security pact in 2022.
The details of the agreement have not been made public – at Beijing’s request – but a draft, seen by AFP, has provisions that would allow China to deploy troops to the country.
Washington and other capitals have expressed concern that Beijing could also establish a military outpost.
In March, a state-backed Chinese company won a contract to develop the international port in the capital Honiara, a major victory in Beijing’s quest to gain a strategic toe-hold in the South Pacific.
The region could prove vital in any possible military conflagration over Taiwan.
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