{"id":193126,"date":"2025-10-06T10:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T10:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193126\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T10:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T10:21:11","slug":"australia-and-papua-new-guinea-sign-landmark-alliance-vowing-to-defend-each-other-in-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193126\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia and Papua New Guinea sign landmark alliance vowing to defend each other in conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Papua New Guinea and Australia have formally signed a landmark new “Pukpuk” defence treaty, elevating the bilateral relationship between the two countries to an alliance and agreeing that they will “act to meet the common danger” if the other is faced with an armed attack.<\/p>\n

Prime ministers Anthony Albanese and James Marape put pen to paper shortly before midday on Monday in Canberra, officially sealing the pact less than three weeks after an abortive attempt in Port Moresby just after PNG’s 50th independence commemorations.<\/p>\n

The document confirms mutual defence provisions first revealed by the ABC last month<\/a>, saying “each Party recognises that an armed attack on either of the Parties within the Pacific would be dangerous to each other’s peace and security and the security of the Pacific,” and promising they would “act together to meet the common danger, in accordance with its constitutional processes”.<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese declared it was an “historic” day for both nations, saying the mutual defence provisions were “similar” to those in the longstanding ANZUS treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.<\/p>\n

“This is Australia’s first new alliance in more than 70 years,” he told reporters in Canberra.<\/p>\n

“I say on behalf of the government and people of Australia that we consider it a great honour that our nearest neighbour is our newest ally.”\"Anthony<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese said the alliance was an “idea whose time had come,” echoing comments by former prime minister Gough Whitlam. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese also echoed the words of former prime minister Gough Whitlam at PNG’s independence at 1975, saying the treaty was “an idea whose time had come”.<\/p>\n

Mr Marape said the agreement wasn’t fuelled by “geopolitics” but “out of geography, history and the enduring reality of our shared neighbourhood”.<\/p>\n

“It is about one bigger fence that secures two houses that has its own yard space. It is in this construct that we’re going about in signing this Treaty,” Mr Marape said.<\/p>\n

The Australian government sees this agreement as a major strategic victory, entrenching its position as PNG’s key defence partner, and making it much harder for China to ratchet up defence cooperation with Port Moresby.<\/p>\n

The document includes a commitment from both countries that they won’t undertake “any activities with third parties” which “compromise the purposes of this treaty” \u2014 which observers say is clearly aimed at limiting China’s defence engagement with Port Moresby.<\/p>\n

China has already warned PNG<\/a> that the document shouldn’t compromise its independence, and says it shouldn’t be used to block other countries from pursuing cooperation.<\/p>\n

China responds to Australia’s defence treaty with PNG<\/a><\/p>\n

China has urged Papua New Guinea not to sign any deal that might exclude or restrict third parties from cooperating with the Pacific nation, as Australia scrambles to clinch a landmark defence treaty.<\/p>\n

But Mr Marape said that he had been “transparent” with China about the treaty, and that he wanted to maintain close ties with Beijing, saying the document was not designed to exclude anyone and that he had “no intent of creating enemies elsewhere”.<\/p>\n

“Some things that we can never change is history and geography. This is a part of the world where our children will be living, so it is in this context that for Papua New Guinea, we made this strategic call,” he told journalists.<\/p>\n

“A conscious choice that Australia will be our security partner of choice \u2026 I will never live to regret this choice I made.”<\/p>\n

The document also commits Australia to helping PNG expand and modernise its defence forces, saying “through continuous cooperation” the countries will “assist one another to maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to protect their sovereignty, and deter and resist external threats and armed attacks”.<\/p>\n

Some PNG citizens able to join ADF from January<\/p>\n

Both leaders also confirmed the document would open up pathways for PNG citizens to serve in the Australian Defence Force, while there was the “potential” for Australians to be recruited into the PNG Defence Forces in the future.<\/p>\n

Mr Marape said last week that up to 10,000 PNG citizens could eventually serve in the ADF under the agreement, and Mr Albanese said on Monday morning that Australia could “certainly” hit that figure “over a period of time”.<\/p>\n

“It could be really substantial numbers,” he said.<\/p>\n

As a first step, the government confirmed on Monday that PNG permanent residents living in Australia would also be able to join the ADF from January 1 next year \u2014 extending a measure already available to Australia’s Five Eyes intelligence partners.<\/p>\n

Mr Marape has previously said that the treaty would create a pathway for Australian citizens to serve in the PNG defence force, although the joint statement released on Monday only mentions a “potential” pathway for recruitment in the other direction.<\/p>\n

The Coalition sharply criticised Mr Albanese when he failed to land the agreement in Port Moresby last month, but welcomed the signing ceremony on Monday, with Shadow Foreign Minister Michaelia Cash telling Sky News Australia faced “challenges” in the region.<\/p>\n

“In particular, from authoritarian powers and the Chinese communist party, who they themselves would like to influence our region, but in a way that is not consistent with our values,” Senator Cash said.<\/p>\n

“Certainly, to see the agreement inked today, the singing of the treaty, is welcomed by the Coalition.”<\/p>\n

Treaty may still face bumpy path through PNG parliament<\/p>\n

The document will now be presented to both parliaments for ratification.<\/p>\n

That treaty is likely to sail easily through Australia’s parliament, but its passageway will likely be more contentious in PNG.<\/p>\n

Some opposition MPs have already backed the pact, and political observers say Mr Marape should have enough political authority to seal ratification in PNG’s parliament.<\/p>\n

But PNG’s opposition leader lashed the agreement last week, saying Australia should “cancel” the deal and strike a new treaty focused on helping PNG deal with its huge internal security problems.<\/p>\n

“Australia knows about all these issues, but they are more worried about protecting themselves \u2026 they do not care about our citizens here in PNG,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They want to see Papua New Guineans being belittled, they want to see Papua New Guineans being pushed to the corner. They want to see Papua New Guineans become nobody. That’s what Australia wants.”<\/p>\n

Mr Marape responded on Monday by simply reiterating the parliamentary process and promising to provide “full disclosure” to parliament about the treaty and its ramifications.<\/p>\n

“The ratification process will take its course. Parliament will have full disclosure,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The opposition leader is most welcome to comment on this matter.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Papua New Guinea and Australia have formally signed a landmark new “Pukpuk” defence treaty, elevating the bilateral relationship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,512,3403,43,44,27284,15560,121995,41,39,42,40,20668],"class_list":{"0":"post-193126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-defence","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-papua-new-guinea","14":"tag-png","15":"tag-pukpuk","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-treaty"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}