By AFP and Focus | 2025-02-24

SYDNEY -- Australia said it will strike a defense treaty with Papua New Guinea, strengthening ties with a key Pacific neighbor amid rising regional tensions and confrontations with China.

The historically close Pacific nations said in a joint statement on February 20 they were committed to negotiating the treaty to deepen integration of their forces and make it easier to offer security support.

"This will enable our two defense forces to walk down a pathway of increasing integration and increasing interoperability," Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said, adding that he wanted to take Australia's defense relationship with Papua New Guinea to the "next level" through a formal treaty.

"We live in a world which is increasingly strategically complex," he told reporters at a press conference with his Papua New Guinea counterpart.

China's 'unsafe' conduct

"It is really important that we are working with our closest friends, but in this case, we are working with family and that is very much how we see our relationship with Papua New Guinea."

Few details were given on the future treaty, which would build on an overarching security agreement signed between the two countries in 2023.

The move to forge closer security ties comes amid a string of episodes between China and Australia in the increasingly contested airspace and shipping lanes of Asia.

The Australian defense department said on February 13 that a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares near a Royal Australian Air Force plane patrolling the South China Sea. It accused Beijing of "unsafe" military conduct.

Beijing swiftly hit back, accusing the Australian plane of "violating Chinese sovereignty and endangering Chinese national security." China claims almost all of the South China Sea, despite an international ruling in 2016 concluding this has no legal basis.

A Chinese fighter jet last May was accused of intercepting an Australian Seahawk helicopter in international airspace, dropping flares across its flight path.

In 2023, a Chinese destroyer was accused of bombarding submerged Australian navy divers with sonar pulses in waters off Japan, causing minor injuries.

'Very close' friends

Papua New Guinea Defense Minister Billy Joseph said the treaty was important "with the geopolitics and all the different contests that are going on."

"We have consciously made a decision to choose who should be our friends as far as security is concerned," he said.

Papua New Guinea has many friends but it counts Australia as "very close," Joseph said.

Papua New Guinea has historically valued strategic independence, steering clear of alignment in the rivalry between China and the West.

However, the government has enhanced military ties with Australia and ruled out a defense pact with China, instead prioritizing economic relations.

Perched less than 200km (124 miles) from Australia's northernmost border, Papua New Guinea is the largest and most populous state in Melanesia.

Australia has been signing security deals, dishing out aid funding and ramping up diplomatic visits to cement its influence in the South Pacific, while China renews its efforts to woo island nations in the region.

Over the past decade, China has committed billions of dollars to Pacific nations, funding hospitals, sports stadiums, roads and other public works.

It is an approach that appears to be paying dividends.

Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru have all severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in recent years in favor of China.