Albanese fails to lock in PNG treaty

2 hours ago 1

The defence treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea set to be signed today will be delayed after the PNG cabinet failed to organise a quorum of cabinet ministers to sign off the pact, the second Pacific security agreement to founder in the last eight days.

The two nations have instead signed a communique, requiring either Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or PNG Prime Minister James Marape to travel “in coming weeks” to ink a treaty.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape at a flag lowering ceremony in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

A failure to sign the pact during the visit is another setback for Albanese after Vanuatu abruptly shelved plans to sign a security deal with Australia during his visit to the Melanesian nation last Tuesday.

Albanese and other senior ministers arrived in Port Moresby on Monday projecting confidence that the treaty would be signed, but difficulties in organising a quorum of PNG cabinet ministers during the nation’s 50th anniversary of independence celebrations has delayed the inking of the pact until after Albanese ends his three-day visit to Port Moresby.

At a press conference in Port Morseby on Wednesday morning, Marape confirmed the leaders had signed a communique, agreeing on the text of the delayed treaty.

“We are becoming security partners as we go forward into the future,” he said, insisting that a “security treaty for Papua New Guinea would be the highest in terms of security relations we’ve given to any country”.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the island nation’s independence from Australia, Marape said PNG’s defence capacity was not at a level where “your Prime Minister or your defence minister, defence commander, can defend our 462,840 square kilometres of land”, so PNG had made a “conscious choice” to work closely with Australia’s defence forces.

Albanese said “the text of this treaty has been agreed and it will be signed following cabinet processes in both countries. This treaty will elevate our relationship to the status of an alliance. It will be Australia’s first new alliance in more than 70 years, and only the third in our entire history, along with the ANZAC treaty with New Zealand and the United States.“

Albanese stressed that it was Papua New Guinea that sought a treaty.

“Importantly, as Prime Minister Marape has said, this was initiated by Papua New Guinea. It was a request to Australia, and it was a request which we readily agreed to.“

Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko earlier told ABC Breakfast he has “no idea” if the country would sign a mutual defence treaty with Australia today as scheduled.

“Well, you know, things take time,” Tkatchenko told the ABC. “We make sure things are done properly, to everybody’s benefit, long-term benefit, it’s all good.”

Asked whether cabinet had approved the treaty, Tkatchenko said “which treaty”.

Australia has delivered more than $3 billion to PNG in budget support since 2020 and the defence treaty would have cemented the relationship and bolstered efforts to limit China’s influence in the region.

As this masthead revealed last week, the treaty includes a clause committing the two nations to “act to meet the common danger” in the event of an attack on either country, putting the relationship on par with Australia’s military alliances with the United States and New Zealand.

The pact, to be known as the “Pukpuk Treaty” after the Pidgin word for “crocodile”, would also grant the Australian Defence Force unimpeded access to designated facilities in PNG and allow Papua New Guineans and Australians to serve in each other’s militaries.

More to come