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Associated Press

Papua New Guinea’s cabinet has approved a bilateral defence treaty with near neighbour Australia, paving the way for the nations’ leaders to sign a landmark agreement that US allies hope will curb Chinese influence in the region.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape confirmed on Thursday that the treaty had been formally approved by his cabinet.
“Australia has only one other mutual defence treaty of this type and at our request Papua New Guinea will now sign this treaty,” Marape said in a statement. Australia’s other alliance-status pact is the ANZUS Treaty, signed in 1951 with the United States and New Zealand.
“This reflects the depth of trust, history, and shared future between our two nations,” Marape added.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he and Marape would sign the treaty soon.
“Our two nations are the closest of neighbours and the closest of friends, and this treaty will elevate our relationship to a formal alliance,” Albanese said in a statement.
Australia was Papua New Guinea’s colonial master until the developing island nation became independent in 1975. Australia, with its population of 28 million, and Papua New Guinea, with an estimated population of roughly 10 million, are the most populous nations in the South Pacific.
The United States and Australia have both increased military ties in recent years with Papua New Guinea, which is seen as a strategically important partner in countering China’s growing influence in the Pacific.
The new Australia-Papua New Guinea pact would vastly increase the integration of military equipment and personnel.
Marape and Albanese had hoped to sign the pact at a ceremony in Port Moresby on September 17. But a cabinet meeting scheduled two days earlier to endorse the agreement never took place.

Instead, Marape and Albanese signed a joint statement supporting the treaty’s core principles.
The treaty would recognise that “an armed attack on Australia or Papua New Guinea would be a danger to the peace and security of both countries,” the statement said.
It would also allow for the first time Papua New Guinea citizens to serve in the Australian Defence Force, potentially filling Australia’s long-standing recruitment shortfall. Papua New Guineans could use their service as a pathway to Australian citizenship.
China’s embassy in Port Moresby criticised the leaders’ joint statement, saying such a bilateral treaty “should not be exclusive in nature, nor should it restrict or prevent a sovereign country from cooperating with a third party for any reason.”
“It should also refrain from targeting any third party or undermining its legitimate rights and interests,” the embassy posted on social media.
It is a balancing act for Papua New Guinea, which also seeks closer economic cooperation with China.
Oliver Nobetau, project director of the Australia–Papua New Guinea Network at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute international policy think tank, said there was concern in Papua New Guinea that a closer defence relationship with Australia could damage its economic relationship with China.
“The Papua New Guinea government, especially James Marape, has come out and demarcated how they see the bilateral relationships moving forward: now with the security space, siding with Australia’s traditional Western allies. And definitely in the economic and trade space, building up that relationship with China,” Nobetau told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Australia has stepped up efforts to bolster relations with island nations in the region since 2022, when Beijing struck a security deal with the Solomon Islands that has raised the prospect of a Chinese naval base being established in the South Pacific.
Three Pacific island nations have changed their allegiances from Taiwan to Beijing since 2019 as China’s influence in the region has grown. The US and its allies are particularly concerned by China’s growing sway in security through police training in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.


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Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) and Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape attend a flag lowering ceremony in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on September 16. Photo: AP

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape (right) and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese sign a mutual communique in Port Moresby on September 17. Photo: AFP

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Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles (left) and his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro Jnr, talk after their joint press briefing in Makati City on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Marles (left) and Teodoro Jnr sign a statement of intent for the enhanced defence cooperation agreement on Friday. Photo: AP

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Australian soldiers talk to Papua New Guineas defence minister and other officials during a visit to Brisbane earlier this year. Photo: Australian Defence Force/AFP

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo: Reuters

Children draw lines in the sand on a beach in Papua New Guinea. Photo: AP

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Asia

Australasia

The defence treaty strengthens ties, counters China’s influence, and offers PNG citizens a path to Australian citizenship


The defence treaty strengthens ties, counters China’s influence, and offers PNG citizens a path to Australian citizenship.


Australia and Papua New Guinea forge historic defence pact to counter China

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The defence treaty strengthens ties, counters China’s influence, and offers PNG citizens a path to Australian citizenship

The defence treaty strengthens ties, counters China’s influence, and offers PNG citizens a path to Australian citizenship