New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins isn’t concerned that a renewed partnership agreement between the US and Papua New Guinea represents militarization of the Indo-Pacific region.

The agreement builds on existing relationships with the US and isn’t just about security, Hipkins told reporters Monday after a meeting with PNG Prime Minister James Marape in Port Moresby.

“New Zealand doesn’t support militarization of the Pacific,” he said. “Having said that, military presence does not necessarily signify militarization.”

As part of the arrangement, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will sign a defense cooperation agreement with PNG later Monday during a visit to the country. That agreement will help improve the capacity of the PNG Defence Force and increase stability and security in the region, according to a State Department statement.

The move is the latest step in a period of strategic competition between the US and China in the region. In April 2022, China signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, its first in the Pacific and a diplomatic coup for Beijing.

Asked to compare the US-PNG agreement with that Solomons pact, Hipkins said this was a very transparent arrangement.

“We know what’s in the arrangement and we can see that it’s an extension of an existing relationship and it isn’t just about military presence,” he said. “It’s about a range of other different issues where there is an existing solid relationship that’s being built on. From a New Zealand perspective, we do see them as different.”