Australia will gain access to Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) military facilities and troops under a new deal that will see both nations come to each other’s defence if either is under attack.
Australia’s leader Anthony Albanese and his PNG counterpart James Marape signed the security pact in Canberra on Monday. It comes as China’s influence in the Pacific grows.
But Marape said the pact was not born out of geopolitics “but out of geography, history and the enduring reality of our shared neighbourhood”.
The pact will allow as many as 10,000 Papua New Guineans to serve in Australia’s military. They will also have the option to become Australian citizens.
PNG has been “transparent” with China, Marape added.
“We have told them that Australia is our security partner of choice and they understand our alliances here… Other aspects of our relations have never been compromised,” he said.
“Our alliance is built on generations of mutual trust, and demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the Pacific remains peaceful, stable and prosperous,” said Albanese.
“By continuing to build our security relationships in the region, we safeguard our own security,” he said.
Known as the Pukpuk Treaty (meaning “crocodile” in PNG pidgin), the bilateral agreement is the latest in a line of deals struck between Pacific nations and countries vying for a security presence in the region, such as the US and China.
“[The treaty] has the ability to bite and like a crocodile, its bite force speaks of the interoperability’s and preparedness of the military for war,” according to a copy of the deal seen by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
It said that an armed attack on either country would be “dangerous to the other’s peace and security” so both should “act to meet the common danger”.
The deal also covered greater collaboration around cyberspace and electromagnetic warfare, the documents said.
Earlier, the PNG Defence Minister Billy Joseph told the ABC that the deal would mean that Australian and PNG forces would be “totally integrated”.
In 2022, Beijing signed a security deal with the Solomon Islands that has seen Chinese police officers embedded across the country, with another policing agreement forged in 2023.
In response, Canberra struck a A$190m ($126m; £93m) deal with the Solomon Islands for its police force and a police training centre last December, with a similar agreement in place with Tuvalu.
And just last month, Australia signed a $328m security and business deal with Vanuatu, which involves building two data centres, strengthening its security and helping them deal with the impacts of climate change.
The benefits of Wednesday’s deal – signed a day after PNG marked 50 years of independence from Australia – were three-pronged, said Oliver Nobetau, project director of the Lowy Institute’s Australia–PNG network.
First, to limit China’s presence in PNG by ensuring it does not have the same level of access to infrastructure as they do in Solomon Islands and second, he said, to address Australia’s recent struggles recruiting for its military.
“PNG has an oversupply of able-bodied citizens who are willing to do this kind of work,” he said, adding many people would be attracted by the prospects of living in Australia and possibly getting Australian citizenship.
Finally, the deal also sends a message to the US, Mr Nobetau said.
“The US has been questionable in recent times with its withdrawal from the Pacific and USAID,” he said, referring to the Trump administration removing billions in foreign humanitarian aid.
“This is just a demonstration that PNG and Australia are capable as equal partners for managing and bringing a return to regional stability in the Pacific.”
The deal also included annual joint military exercises which were about “strategic messaging,” Mr Nobetau said, to “show the interoperability of the forces and their ability to face an external threat in the region and how quickly they can organise themselves and deploy”.
Anna Powles, associate professor in security studies at Massey University in New Zealand, said the deal would help modernise PNG’s army, bringing a significant boost in both material and morale terms but there were questions over how it fits with the country’s own policies.
“There are concerns in PNG that the treaty undermines PNG’s ‘friends to all, enemies to none’ foreign policy position by aligning PNG with Australia on all security matters,” she said.
Ms Powles said the deal forms part of Australia’s so-called hub and spokes network of security agreements in the Pacific – with Australia at the centre and island nations being the spokes – but both sides need greater clarity on the expectations, obligations and commitments.
