Wayne Mapp: Former Defence Minister comments on Australia's alliance with Papua New Guinea

A view Australia's recent military alliance with Papua New Guinea could be the springboard for a wider 'Pacific Eyes' alliance.

Australian think-tank Lowy Institute's proposing an intelligence sharing agreement between us, Australia, PNG and Fiji to counter China's influence in the region.

It claims it'd also help tackle trans-national crime and climate-related disasters.

Former Defence Minister Wayne Mapp says it would be a tough deal to negotiate, but it's feasible.

He says Australia's alliance is about sharing more intelligence and cooperating more, like this proposed deal.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To the world of geopolitics, where the Lowy Institute is
suggesting a new intelligent sharing agreement between Australia, New Zealand
and the Pacific Nations, essentially calling it Pacific Eyes, which
is essentially a lot of I suppose the local version
of five Eyes. It is to counter China's growing influence.
Wayne map form a defense Minister is whether it's Wayne
morning to you, if you were still in charge of
the portfolio, would you look at this and go that's

(00:21):
a damn good idea or not.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It seems a good idea. The key point will be
getting trust between the four partners, so they think of
themselves as equals. So it's a fundamental and that's our
New Zealand thinks about five Eyes. We might be the smallest,
but we consider ourselves an equal and if you can
achieve that work.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, that was one of several questions I had around that,
given the Pacific and the complex makeup of their view
of China and their relationship with us and all of
that sort of stuff, could you round up a couple
of Pacific nations that would be I don't know, on
the right side of a Pacific Eyes arrangement.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
The proposal is initially Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Australia and
New Zone and Papua New Guinea and Fiji are the
two largest you know what, we would regard a specific
nations and they all have capable of militaries, so it
makes sense to start there. Australia has done its deal,

(01:20):
it's a military alliance with Papua New Guinea, so this
kind of is a springboard of that and extending it Fiji.
I think that would be possible. It won't be easy
to achieve. Is a building trust will be the critical
part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
But do you think if you can do that, it's
real or is this just a think tank doing what
think tanks do.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It could be real because what you'd be doing is
sharing a higher level of intelligence cooperation than currently occurs.
That's clearly what the defense alliance with Papua New Guinea
between Australia and PNG is about. This is kind of
building off that, using that as the first sort of
building block to a wider security apparatus within the region.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
All right, let's say if it goes and we appreciate it,
won't have a good week informat Defense Minister Wayne Matt

Speaker 2 (02:10):
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