Marape's Food Basket Diplomacy

In a few weeks or months in office the new Prime Minister of PNG James Marape has shared a lot of information about his vision for a new PNG. In particular, the 'richest black Christian nation on earth' vision is ambitious.

One prerequisite to becoming the richest black Christian nation on earth is to have a smart foreign policy. All states in the international system need foreign policies to guide their interaction with other states and non-state actors.

But policies are secondary, the most important element is national interest. A state in the international system interact with others based on its national interest. National interest is made up of a collection of public interests. Furthermore, national interest is the self interest of a state.

Rimbink Pato in the Ministerial Statement he presented to the National Parliament during his tenure as foreign minister said:

"In a rapidly changing, globalizing world, foreign policy has to be kept under constant review - so that new challenges and new opportunities are addressed in ways that protect and promote Papua New Guinea's national interests, with due regard for other countries' interests."

Generally, people living in the four regions of this country are concerned about their daily survival. When they wake up every morning, they think about what they will do today, in order to help them achieve their main outcome of living and breathing tomorrow and onward.

Apart from survival as a human being and as a nation, the other main concern is security. Security is pivotal because it connects everything together. In PNG, economic security is a paramount issue. According to the Human Development Report of 1994, economic security at the individual level stress on the need to have an economic safety net or a stable form of income to sustain yourself and those who depend on you.

In connecting our understanding of foreign policy with geopolitics. Let us select the geographical factor of topography from our geopolitics analytical framework and use it to understand Marape's vision.  

Merriam Webster defines topography as the features (such as mountains and rivers) in an area of land. It is the configuration of a surface including its relief and the position of its natural and man-made features.

World Atlas refers to topography as the detailed written representation of a place or area including lakes, major rivers, mountains, valleys, latitudes, and roads. The four main topographical features are landforms, elevation, latitude, and longitude. The term landform refers to physical features that impact an area such as rivers, dams, lakes, roads, mountains, oceans, valleys, cities, and hills.

One topographic feature under landform that is mentioned in Marape's proposed foreign policy vision that will help make PNG the richest black Christian nation is our many fertile valleys and plains. Marape talked about beef production in Ramu valley and the Western or Sepik plains. He said we have the potential to supply the Asian market with beef.

He repeated the same comment when he gave his address at the Lowy Institute on July 25, 2019. He said agriculture and the food industry will receive his special attention because the country is close to over 3 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region who will need to eat food and especially organic food that we are capable of producing. 

Marape's idea of appointing three vice ministers to assist the agriculture minister is an interesting approach. He has decided that one vice minister will be responsible for coffee and intervention into coffee, another will look after copra, cocoa and palm oil while the third one will look after livestock. The appointments further consolidate his focus on agriculture.

In addition, Marape's foreign policy vision is further strengthened by the official opening of the multi-million dollar three storey Fresh Produce Development Agency building in Goroka on August 23, 2019. He made a commitment to invest K200 million annually into agriculture starting in 2020 and into the next ten years. He encouraged households to go into agriculture and the agencies with the support from the government will help in the commercializing of agriculture so that households are empowered.

The statement about 'empowering households' is closely connected to economic security. The household is a key measurement in economics, if households are economically secured via agricultural activities then the economic security of citizens will not be a worry. Citizens will have a stable form of income to help them sustain themselves. Hence, this will lead to a decrease in the rate of law and order issues.  

He was accompanied by the Chinese Ambassador Xue Bing to attend the opening. This significant move is due to the fact that several agricultural companies from China's Guangdong Province are keen on investing and exporting their products to PNG. The companies specialize in agricultural farm machinery, food processing, crops development, exports and imports, research, irrigation and forestry. They expressed their interest during a meeting with PNG officials and farmers in Guangzhou City in June 2019.

The group of 19 including officers from the Department of Agriculture, Central Provincial Administration, Fresh Produce Development Agency, National Agricultural Research Institute, and farmers and farm workers from the Central Province were in Guangzhou for a two weeks agricultural management and training program.  

The program exposed the PNG officials and farmers to a good network of individuals and companies which relates to Marape's vision. If we are to go into commercial farming to feed close to over 3 billion people in the region, we will need machinery to make farming more efficient. We will also need fertilizers to help make the soil rich and pesticides to help kill pests that will harm our agricultural produce. 

Marape indicated that his foreign policy will focus on Southeast Asia. He said he wanted to look at the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore in a bigger way. He said he will engage with the Chinese government as long as it is free and fair. We are yet to see a detail documentation of his foreign policy vision or how he intends to organize our diplomatic efforts.

  

The former government had 'PNG Connect in a Globalized World' which was championed by Rimbink Pato. He is still serving as Marape's special envoy on foreign affairs. Their main aim was to grow PNG's connections with other states and non-state actors in order to address our national interest. The approach was more general with no detail written direction. 

Marape will need to pursue a more specific written foreign policy approach. The Sports Diplomacy 2030 and the New Colombo Plan are good examples from Australia that the current government can use to help them come up with an approach that is focused on making PNG the food basket of the Asia-Pacific using our fertile valleys.

PNG has diplomatic missions in the Southeast Asian countries he mentioned specifically including our neighbour Indonesia. We also have cordial relations with China and Australia. All these states in the Asia-Pacific region, and other non-state actors like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, along with important national stakeholders should feature in Marape's 'Food Basket' Diplomacy.