Papua New Guinea's affiliation to APEC : Pursuit of Asia-Pacific diplomacy

In November 1993, Papua New Guinea joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as the first Pacific Island country. This article examines Papua New Guinea's affiliation to APEC in the context of its Asia-Pacific diplomacy. Since independence in 1975, Papua New Guinea has pursued the foreign policy in which it intended to be a 'bridge of Asia and the Pacific'. Whilst Papua New Guinea has established its position in the Pacific smoothly, it had to conduct prudent foreign policy to the Asia with which it had few similarities. There were two pillars in Papua New Guinea's foreign policy to the Asia; normalization of the relations with neighbouring Indonesia and affiliation to ASEAN. The former would affect the latter since Indonesia played an important role in ASEAN. As the relations with Indonesia was getting to be normalize, expectation for Papua New Guinea's full membership of ASEAN mounted. However, it did not go forward. Although Papua New Guinea normalized the relations with Indonesia by signning the Treaty of Mutual Respect, Friendship and Cooperation in 1986, it remained a special observer in ASEAN. Then, APEC, which was set up in 1989, appeared as a breakthrough for Papua New Guinea's Asia-Pacific diplomacy. After having observed two conferences, Papua New Guinea applied to APEC for a full membership in 1991. In 1993, Papua New Guinea was granted membership of APEC. Since Papua New Guinea joined APEC, it has tried to be rather a 'spokesman of the Pacific Island Countries' in macroregional APEC than a 'bridge of Asia and the Pacific'. It is one of the important issues for Papua New Guinea's future Asia-Pacific diplomacy how to carry out the role of a 'spokesman of the Pacific Isrand Countries' in APEC while other smaller Pacific Island Countries can get access to APEC through the South Pacific Forum which holds an APEC obserrer status. The second issue for Papua New Guinea's future Asia-Pacific diplomacy is how to locate itself in the political/security framework in the Asia-Pacific region. Papua Ne