Former PNG PM O'Neil appeals to government for skillful leadership

 The Former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O’Neill has called on the government to exercise skill and care to simmer down rising tension between China and the United State.

In a statement, O’Neill appealed to his successor to “slow down and utilise the skillful, traditional practices of our Melanesian way to show leadership to our powerful partners in the US and China and encourage a simmering down to business as normal rather than a ramping up towards war in our region”.

O’Neill’s comments came as the US secretary of state Antony Blinken signed a PNG-US defence cooperation agreement, to beef up an existing status of forces agreement and a ship-rider agreement.

Blinken stepped in for President Joe Biden who cancelled his Quad meeting in Australia to ensure his 2024 US budget was not railroaded by a strong republican opposition in Congress.

Said O’Neill: “You (Marape) have a responsibility to all of us to pursue peace over all else even if the demands to do otherwise are made by powerful forces. And if there are to be benefits of entering into these agreements, then respectfully let the US or China make good on those benefits.

“They have both the financial and human capital to help PNG develop and we welcome this, but it should not come attached to a defence cooperation agreement.”

O’Neill also said if the defence cooperation agreement with the US granted immunity from prosecution to any US personal as reported, such laws would be struck down by any PNG court.

PNG tested a similar agreement with Australia in 2005 in the Special Reference to the Supreme Court made by the Morobe provincial executive.

The Supreme Court found that agreement was “not valid where non-citizens are given immunity from prosecution if laws of PNG are broken or undermined”.

National/One PNG News

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