A View from Afar – In this podcast, political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning examine in detail what to expect from the NATO leaders’ summit, which includes addresses from the prime ministers of Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Why is NATO including addresses of NATO partners in this year’s leaders’ summit?

What will the hawks bring to the summit, and what will those of a more moderate and dove persuasion bring to the NATO debate and course ahead?

You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:

• Facebook.com/selwyn.manning
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• Twitter.com/Selwyn_Manning

If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

A View from Afar – In this podcast, political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning will approach this episode in two parts.

First we will detail what to expect from the NATO leaders’ summit, which includes addresses from the prime ministers of Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Why is NATO including addresses of NATO partners in this year’s leaders’ summit? 

And secondly, are we beginning to see changes to the pre-pandemic globalisation framework? Are we witnessing a response to the breakdown of the global economic order?

If so, what does the emergence of near-shoring and friend-shoring mean for supply-chain issues, cost of living, and the global economy?

Join Paul and Selwyn for this LIVE recording of this podcast while they consider these big issues, and remember any comments you make while live can be included in this programme.

You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:

• Facebook.com/selwyn.manning
• Youtube
• Twitter.com/Selwyn_Manning

If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to participate in the upcoming NATO Leaders Summit, becoming the first New Zealand leader to do so.

NATO’s Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, has invited the leaders of Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand to attend the military alliance’s meeting in Spain held on June 28-30.

Anthony Albanese, Fumio Kishida and Yoon Suk-yeol have already accepted the invitation.

Ardern is expected to participate in a session focused on the Asia-Pacific region and meet with a range of foreign leaders.

While ministers, including Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta, have attended previous NATO meetings, this is the first time New Zealand has been invited to the Leaders Summit.

Stoltenberg said the invitation is a “strong demonstration” of NATO’s “close partnership” with like-minded countries in the Asia Pacific.

NATO will set its strategy for the next decade at the summit and define the security challenges the alliance is facing and what it will do to address them.

‘Strengthened’ defence talks
Leaders will also discuss “strengthened” defence, further support for Ukraine, and Finland and Sweden’s applications for membership.

Otago University professor of politics and international studies Robert Patman said the invitation is significant and “reflects the gravity of the international situation at the moment.”

The invitation has come at a “critical” time in Europe, he said.

“We live in such an interconnected world. We’ve seen in New Zealand how events far away from us, such as transnational terrorism, can impact on our own society…

“We live in a world in which increasingly all states, big and small, are confronted by problems which don’t respect borders.

“There’s a recognition among NATO that although New Zealand and Australia and South Korea and Japan are geographically a long way from NATO, they share a lot in common in terms of values and in their approach to international order.

“So I think that’s probably why, given the dramatic backdrop of the war in Ukraine, that we’ve been invited to NATO.”

At the summit, Ardern will likely want NATO leaders to “reaffirm the importance of a rules-based international order, on which this country critically depends,” Patman said.

Ardern also recently returned from a trip to the United States where she met with US President Joe Biden, and a trip to Singapore and Japan.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A View from Afar – In this podcast, political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning discuss: how it is now over one year since United States voters went to the polls and elected Joe Biden as president – or perhaps it’s fair to say, voted Donald Trump out of the White House.

In this episode, Buchanan and Manning analyse the big issues that have challenged the Joe Biden Administration, and examine Biden’s wins and losses as a first term US President.

So far there have been two iconic moments in the Biden presidency: getting an infrastructure rebuild plan through the House of Representatives; and inching toward a rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China.

Both have taken place this week.

What is the sum of Joe Biden’s impact on domestic USA and around the world?

And has Biden’s biggest challenge been domestic, on confronting the question of how to overcome the enduring legacy of Donald Trump?

While evidence suggests Trumpism has now become a vocal force throughout the United States, it has also become a cultural ideology for export . Evidence of that can be seen in liberal democracies around the world, in countries such as New Zealand and Australia.

Has Biden been able to realign the USA’s outward cultural expression to one of change, or has Trump won that fight with Steve Bannon and other disciples packaging their views for export?

Join Paul and Selwyn for this LIVE recording of this podcast while they consider these big issues, and remember any comments you make while live can be included in this programme.

You can comment on this debate by clicking on one of these social media channels and interacting in the social media’s comment area. Here are the links:

• Facebook.com/selwyn.manning
• Youtube
• Twitter.com/Selwyn_Manning

If you miss the LIVE Episode, you can see it as video-on-demand, and earlier episodes too, by checking out EveningReport.nz or, subscribe to the Evening Report podcast here.

The MIL Network’s podcast A View from Afar was Nominated as a Top  Defence Security Podcast by Threat.Technology – a London-based cyber security news publication.

Threat.Technology placed A View from Afar at 9th in its 20 Best Defence Security Podcasts of 2021 category. You can follow A View from Afar via our affiliate syndicators.

American-Chinese summit diplomacy comes and goes, but there will not be a much more consequential meeting between two leaders than the latest of Joe Biden and Xi Jinping’s consultations.

If a measure was needed of how transformational the relationship between the US and China has become, one only needs go back to the first post-revolution summit between Richard Nixon and an ailing Mao Zedong in 1972.

Then, no-one could have predicted that within a generation the two countries would be locked in strategic competition. Nor would they have foreseen China surging forward economically to become the world’s second largest economy.

They also would not have forecast the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries meeting virtually, in contrast to the staged audience Mao conducted with Nixon in Beijing’s fortified leadership compound a half century ago.

As always, US-China summits are framed by the Shanghai Communique signed in 1972 by Nixon and then Premier Zhou Enlai. This acknowledged a “one-China” policy and set aside the issue of Taiwan.

In his virtual discussions with Xi, Biden reiterated America’s acceptance of “one China”, while re-stating Washington’s insistence the status quo in the Taiwan Strait not be altered by force.

While it is much too soon to talk about a reset in US-China relations, a reasonable conclusion is that Biden and Xi have at least got the relationship more or less back on track after the chaotic Trump era.

Read more:
Xi Jinping sends message to US on China’s rising power in Boao address

Comments from the two sides on the encounter, which stretched over three-and-a-half hours, indicate that not much was off the table. Both emphasised the need for ongoing dialogue.

A White House readout indicated that Biden emphasised strong US opposition to China’s attempt to throw its weight around.

President Biden underscored the United States will continue to stand up for its interests and values and together with our allies and partners, ensure the rules of the road for the 21st century advances an international system that is free, open, and fair.

From an Australian perspective, given the bad state of relations between Canberra and Beijing, these expressions of support for “allies and partners” will be welcome,

In another significant intervention, Biden called for greater cooperation to avoid possible conflict.

President Biden also underscored the importance of managing strategic risks. He noted the need for commonsense guardrails to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict […]

The Chinese “readout” came via Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, who said the meeting was “wide-ranging, in-depth, candid, constructive, substantive and productive”.

Chinese state media quoted Xi as describing the talks as a “new era” in which the principles of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation should be followed”.

Both Biden’s and Xi’s words indicated a wish to improve the relationship through more frequent communication.

Biden’s remarks before the two leaders began the talks suggested he was keen to establish a less combative relationship. He said

It seems to be our responsibility as the leaders of China and the United States to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict whether intended or unintended, rather than simple, straightforward competition.

Xi responded by calling Biden an “old friend” and expressed the wish to “work with you, Mr President, to build consensus, take active steps and move China-US relations forward in a positive direction”.

The above sentiments expressed by both sides could be regarded as nothing more nor less than what might be expected in exchanges between US and Chinese leaders in a summit setting. But there is at least a chance that a more constructive relationship will emerge from these talks.

In a complex world in which both the US and China are facing immense challenges domestically, it is in neither’s interest for relations to spiral.

Indeed, it is in their collective interest for a more workable relationship to emerge. Agreement between Washington and Beijing at the recent COP26 climate summit to work constructively towards climate targets is an example of the sort of collaboration that serves each other’s interests.

However, it would be extremely naïve to believe the world is about to enter a new and more benign phase following the Biden-Xi talks. Multiple structural differences between the competing powers are such that it is inevitable the two will continue to be at odds on a range of issues.

Read more:
China’s global diplomatic approach is shifting, and Australia would do well to pay attention to it

Most concerning for America and its friends, one of those issues is China’s continuing military build-up. This includes additions to its nuclear arsenal and the development of space-enabled hypersonic missiles that would pose a serious threat to US military supremacy in the Indo-Pacific.

China’s military buildup in the East and South China Seas, despite assurances provided by Xi to President Barack Obama that Beijing’s intentions were benign, represents a significant concern for the US and its allies. This includes Australia.

Read more:
What would a Biden presidency mean for Australia?

China’s use of its cyber capabilities in a provocative manner is another cause for concern. Its intellectual property theft weighs heavily on relations with Washington. Its human rights abuses represent another serious drag on the relationship.

All that said, personal diplomacy between Xi and Biden may serve to smooth off some of the rougher edges of a relationship that will continue to be tested. This is because of the simple reality that China, as a rising power, will continue to disrupt the US and its allies on many different fronts.

The question that should be asked about this latest attempt to restore a level of equilibrium to the relationship is whether there is reasonable expectation a more constructive partnership will develop.

There are reasons why relations might become less contentious. On the other hand, there are compelling arguments for why deep and aggravating differences are such that a dysfunctional relationship remains likely.

Tony Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Xi-Biden meeting is cordial, but will anything change between the superpowers? – https://theconversation.com/xi-biden-meeting-is-cordial-but-will-anything-change-between-the-superpowers-171926

When I ring home to West Papua, my village people often ask me about the rumours that they have heard, of an upcoming Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) meeting. They ask, “When is the MSG meeting?” and if West Papua will be accepted as a full member.

I tell them that I don’t know, and then, with a dispirited voice, they say to me that they will continue to pray for our membership.

I respond the way I do because of two things: I truly don’t know of any proposed dates for the meeting, and I also don’t want to give false hope to the West Papuan people.

The MSG often changes the date of their scheduled meetings at the last second, which unfortunately is becoming the norm for it.

The foreign ministerial meetings and Leaders’ Summit of this regional body was scheduled for June 15 to June 17, 2021, but, unfortunately, it has been postponed again.

It is now being rescheduled for June 22 to June 25, with no guarantee that this new date won’t be postponed further.

Past Leader Summits were held in 2018 and February 2019, just before covid-19 hit in Suva, Fiji, where the ULMWP leaders addressed the meeting.

Another significant year
In 2016 it was another significant year for both MSG and West Papua. The Leaders’ Summit was held in July that year in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, and was supposed to be the moment that everyone thought West Papua would be finally accepted as a full member.

But, again, it was rejected due to some criteria issue that West Papua did not meet.

The semantic rhetoric in the media surrounding this momentous point of West Papua national liberation – advocated by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) back then – gave a lot of false hope and disappointment to the Papuan people.

The climate at that time was forecast with anxiety and anticipation, like expecting your team to score a goal in the final of the FIFA World Cup. Hundreds of Papuans were fasting and praying in West Papua, supported by grassroot solidarities across Oceania.

But tragically, the MSG leaders failed to score the goal everyone had cheered for.

This tragedy was captured in the words of Melanesian leaders at that time. Joe Natuman, then Vanuatu’s deputy prime minister, said that “West Papua was sold out for 30 pieces of silver”, as reported by Asia-Pacific Report on July 20.

At that time, the MSG’s Director-General Amena Yauvoli said: “I believe the MSG Secretariat has been working hard to formalise membership criteria from observer to full member.” Unfortunately, this hard work, never bore any fruit.

Other forces at work
Even though it was justifiable to grant ULMWP’s full membership in MSG, as expressed by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogovare when he hosted four Melanesian prime ministers of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji during the 23rd MSG Special Leader’s Summit in Honiara in 2016, there were other forces at work behind the scenes: sorting out the criteria of what constitutes “Melanesia”.

Given these unfolding events regarding the fate of Melanesia, the late Grand Chief Michael Somare, one of the key founding fathers of the independent state of Papua New Guinea and MSG, also said on 14 July 2016: “We must make the right choice on West Papua.”

In the same week, the Vanuatu Ambassador to Brussels at that time, Roy Mickey Joy, said, “The Melanesian Spearhead Group is too politicised; it has lost its Melanesian integrity and what it stood for.”

For the Melanesian leaders, changing and postponing dates and sorting criteria for MSG’s membership seems inconsequential, but it is a matter of life and death for Papuans.

Unfortunately, this tragic drama is playing out like a horror movie wherein innocent people are being chased by a monster, desperate to seek and enter a safe family home, but refused entry.

Many Melanesian prominent leaders are passing away

Deaths of leaders
These tragedies have also been marked by the recent loss of many of the Melanesian leaders. For decades, they dedicated their lives to open the MSG’s door for the abandoned Melanesian family – Papuans.

On 4 September 2014, Dr John Ondawame, one of the exiled Free Papua Movement (OPM) leaders who tirelessly lobbied the MSG leaders and countries, died in Port Vila. Another prominent Vanuatu-based West Papuan independent leader, Andy Ayamiseba, died in Canberra in February 2020.

Tongan Prime minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva, an outspoken proponent of West Papua’s cause, also died in 2019. We have recently lost Grand Chief Michael Somare, the founder of MSG and the state of Papua New Guinea, in 2021.

In West Papua, Klemen Tinal, the Vice-Governor of Papua’s province, from the Damal tribe of Papua’s central highlands, died in Jakarta on 21 May 2021. Papuans can only lament these tragic losses with endless grief as many prominent churches and tribal and independent leaders continue to die in this war.

Adding to these heartaches, the people of West Papua and Vanuatu also lost another great leader. Pastor Allen Nafuki, a prominent social justice campaigner, died on Sunday, 13 June 2021 — just two days before another proposed MSG meeting, which has now been rescheduled again, for June 22.

GOD WILL NEVER SLEEP FOR WEST PAPUA, MASSAGE FROM MR,ALAN NAFUKI BEFORE HE DIEhttps://t.co/bch3Ki9mQ4

— Fighter (@khirlani) June 20, 2021

Pastor Nafuki was responsible for bringing warring factions of Papuan resistance groups together in Port Vila in 2014, which helped precipitate much of the ULMWP’s international success. Vanuatu, West Papua, and communities across Oceania mourn the loss of this great beacon of hope for our region.

Shared the Papuan burden
Saturday, June 19, was announced as the day of mourning for Pastor Nafuki in West Papua. His picture and words of condolences have been printed and displayed across West Papua as they mourn for the great loss of their great father and friend who shared their burden for four decades.

The ULMWP leadership paid their tributes to the late Pastor Nafuki through ULMWP’s executive director Markus Haluk’s words: “Reverend Nafuki is a father, shepherd and figure of truth for both Vanuatu and West Papua.”

In another statement, ULMWP interim President Benny Wenda, said: “This is a great loss – but we also celebrate his legacy. He helped combine the destiny of the people of West Papua with the Republic of Vanuatu and helped bring about Papuan unity in 2014.”

Papuans and their solidarity groups continue to put pressure on MSG

Despite these tragedies and losses, Papuans and their solidary groups still fix their eyes on MSG.

Matthew C Wale, the Solomon Islands opposition leader, tweeted:

“MSG Leaders cannot continue to postpone the admission of West Papua into the group. It’s time the word ‘Spearhead’ in the title is given meaningful use. 30 pieces of silver & a mercenary approach cannot be the way decide the application for full membership.”

Free West Papua Campaign Facebook page has also been inundated with photos of Papuans holding banners supporting West Papua admission into MSG.
Image: Free West Papua campaign

Bring West Papua back to the Melanesian family
Bring West Papua back to the Melanesian family is the main message Papuans are trying to convey to the Melanesian leaders across the social media world. Although Melanesia itself is a colonial invention, Papuans take their identity as part of Melanesia seriously. They feel threatened by the large influx of Indonesian migrants into their ancestral land.

In response to these growing demands, the MSG leaders granted observer status to ULMWP in 2015. However, Papuans insist that elevating it to full membership status will boost their confidence as they carry their cause to the wider world.

This will legitimise the home-based regional support before asking anyone else for help. It also means someone out there recognises the 60 years of tragedy, as the world kicked West Papua around as they saw fit for their own selfish interests.

The beginning of Papuan tragedies
The modern history of West Papua since 1963 has been tainted with tragic stories of betrayal. It started when the Dutch prepared Papuans for independence on December 1, 1961, but then withdrew without saying anything.

The controversial New York Agreement followed this betrayal in 1962, which gave the green light to Indonesia to re-colonise West Papua, sealing its fate with a sham Act of Free Choice in 1969.

Ever since, Papuans have been trying to share these stories with the world, unfortunately, their fate was ultimately decided during that agreement. Two prominent Papuan leaders, Willem Zonggonau and Clemens Runawery, fled West Papua to Papua New Guinea to fly to New York to inform the United Nations that the Act of Free Choice was corrupt, but were stopped by the Australian government.

The cover-ups of these betrayals and prohibition of international media and the UN to visit West Papua persist. Unlike the Palestinians, Papuan stories hardly make global headline news, remaining a secret war of the 21st century somewhere between Asia and the Pacific.

The Greeks and MSG’s tragedies
Today, West Papuans and their solidarity groups around the world continue to knock on the MSG’s doors. But the fact that the MSG leaders are reluctant to open their arms and embrace Papuans as part of their larger Melanesian nation-states, only adds another episode of tragedy in their liberation stories.

The MSG’s decisions on ULMWP’s application for full membership are not in the hands of some celestial beings beyond human comprehension. These decisions that affect human lives are in the hands of individuals just like you and I, with family and conscience.

This is true to what’s been happening in MSG and true to what had happened in the New York Agreement in 1962 or any other meetings held between the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Western governments about Papua’s fate.

Mortal human beings, titled leaders, ministers, kings, and queens continue to make decisions that bring calamities to human lives, driven by self-deluded, egotistical importance, righteousness, greed, and power.

We make wrong decisions for the right reasons and make right decisions for the wrong reasons, or sometimes are unable to make any decision at all, with all sorts of reasons, influenced by misleading information, misjudgement, and misunderstanding. Ancient Greeks wrote about these tragedies in the fifth century BC, but these tragedies are still unfolding in front of our eyes.

Although the famous Greek Tragedy was set in a distant past in different cultural contexts, the basic theme is still relevant today because it tells us about the decisions we make about our relationship with other people, the consequences, and the unfairness of life itself.

What happened and what is still happening to West Papuan people reflect these tragedies – being cheated, mistreated for decades, and forgotten by nations around the world as they turn their back on their fellow humans. MSG’s indecisiveness about West Papua’s full membership adds to this prolonged history of mistreatment of the Papuan people.

MSG is at a crossroads
These are uncertain times as humankind is slowly but surely being re-programmed to think and feel specific ways under the cursed covid-19 pandemic. It seems that the old world is dying, and a new one is being born, and we are in the middle of it – at a crossroads, gazing at some cataclysmic collapse looming all around.

In this kind of climactic moment, a hero is needed to make bold decisions and set a precedent for future generations. These pressures compel us to reflect on these tragedies and ask why the Melanesian Spearhead Group was formed in the first place over 40 years ago.

Was it to save Melanesia? Or destroy it?

Overdue smile
In Port Vila, October 2016, when Sogovare met and told Pastor Nafuki and West Papuan leaders Jacob Rumbiak, Benny Wenda, and Andy Ayamiseba about granting West Papua full membership, according to the Vanuatu Daily Post, the pastor “smiled a long overdue smile and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, ‘Now I can go to my home island of Erromango and have a peaceful sleep with my grandchildren, with no disturbance whatsoever’.”

The beloved Pastor Nafuki, the chairman of Vanuatu Free West Papua Association, died on Sunday, 13 June 2021, just two days before when the MSG meeting was due, which has been postponed for another week.

He is now certainly at peace on his island with his family, but the thing that thrilled him to utter these words, West Papua membership in MSG, is still unresolved.

How long will the MSG leaders drag out these overdue smiles, tragedies, and betrayals? What should I tell Papuan villages who fast and pray every day for your decision?

Should I tell them I don’t know? Or say, “yes, your prayers have been answered”, that the rest of the Melanesian family has now welcomed West Papua?

West Papuans have been waiting a painfully long time for recognition, for salvation, for independence.

• Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
  
• Other Yamin Kogoya articles

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz