Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent tour through the Pacific was supposed to mark a new era of defense cooperation, but instead, it’s highlighted just how complicated regional diplomacy has become. On September 17, 2025, in Port Moresby, the much-anticipated mutual defense treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG)—dubbed the Pukpuk treaty—remained unsigned, despite months of negotiations and public expectations that a deal was imminent.
The treaty, which would have committed both nations to defend each other in the event of an armed attack, was widely seen as a cornerstone of Australia’s strategy to deepen ties with its Pacific neighbors and counter China’s expanding influence. According to AFP, Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape instead signed a “defense communique” outlining their intent, but left the actual treaty pending further Cabinet approval in both countries.
“The wording has been agreed to. The communique today, as signed, outlines precisely what is in the treaty,” Albanese told reporters, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He characterized the delay as “perfectly understandable,” citing the need for democracy and process. “Democracies aren’t the same as authoritarian regimes. They go through processes. We respect them,” Albanese said, emphasizing the importance of sovereignty and Cabinet procedures.
The delay wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it did catch many observers off guard. A scheduled PNG Cabinet meeting on September 15 to endorse the treaty failed to reach a quorum, reportedly due to the country’s independence celebrations—a reminder that even the most carefully laid diplomatic plans can be upended by local realities. Marape, for his part, insisted there was “no sticking point,” and suggested the treaty could be signed “shortly.”
“There is no sticking point,” Marape stated, while also making it clear that China had no role in the delay. “Please let’s give respect to China. This (delay) is in no way, shape or form (because) Chinese have any hand in saying: Don’t do this, etc.”
The defense treaty, if signed, would elevate PNG to the position of Australia’s third security alliance partner after the United States and New Zealand. It comes at a time of heightened geopolitical competition in the Pacific, with Beijing investing billions in infrastructure and aid across the region. As Reuters noted, Marape reaffirmed, “I made a conscious choice that Australia remains our security partner of choice.”
But the PNG setback was not an isolated incident for Albanese. Just days earlier, on September 9, he departed Vanuatu without signing a separate security and economic partnership, valued at around 500 million Australian dollars (about $326.5 million USD). Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Jotham Napat cited concerns that the deal could restrict his country’s ability to raise funds for critical infrastructure from third-party nations—particularly China, Vanuatu’s largest external creditor. “There were concerns within his government that the treaty could limit Vanuatu’s ability to raise money for critical infrastructure from any third country, such as China,” reported the Associated Press (AP).
These diplomatic hiccups come amid a broader regional contest. Since 2022, when China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands—raising fears of a future Chinese naval base in the South Pacific—Australia has ramped up efforts to reinforce its relationships with Pacific island nations. The Pukpuk treaty’s text even includes provisions ensuring that “any activities, agreements or arrangements with third parties would not compromise the ability of either of the Parties to implement the Treaty,” a clear nod to concerns over Beijing’s influence.
As Mihai Sora, head of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute, told AFP, “China is the only party that would stand to lose from a mutual defence arrangement between Australia and Papua New Guinea. It would be naive to think it hasn’t been lobbying intensively this year against the treaty.” Sora described the situation as a “diplomatic knife fight in the Pacific.”
China’s investment in the region is hard to ignore. Over the past decade, Beijing has poured billions into Pacific nations, funding everything from hospitals to sports stadiums and roads—an approach that appears to be winning friends. Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and Nauru have all switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in recent years, further shifting the regional balance.
The Pukpuk treaty, which would also allow citizens of both Australia and PNG to serve in each other’s militaries, comes at a symbolic moment: 50 years after PNG gained independence from Australia. Yet, as Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko told ABC, the agreement remains “a work in progress.”
Meanwhile, another key pillar of Australia’s defense planning, the AUKUS submarine deal with the United States and the United Kingdom, remains under review by the Pentagon. U.S. defense officials are reassessing whether the ambitious technology-sharing pact aligns with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda. Despite this, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles expressed confidence in June that the AUKUS plan—worth hundreds of billions of dollars and centered on next-generation nuclear submarines—would proceed.
Looking ahead, Albanese is expected to seek his first in-person meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump during the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, with regional security high on the agenda. Trump, never one to shy away from the spotlight, told reporters outside the White House, “You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone,” in reference to a tense exchange with an ABC reporter. According to ABC’s John Lyons, “I believe that they will have the meeting and I hope that, you know, that my two or three questions about legitimate public interest shouldn’t, in my view, in any way impact upon what they decide.”
For all the high-level maneuvering, the delays in finalizing these treaties underscore the complexity of Pacific diplomacy. Sovereignty, economic needs, and the competing interests of global powers all play a role—and sometimes, as this week’s events show, even the best-laid plans must wait for the realities of local politics to catch up.