Port Moresby, PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Six months after Papua New Guinea and Australia signed a bilateral defense treaty, public opinion in PNG remains divided, with some telling Radio Free Asia they like the deal creates opportunities for young people, and others saying they worry about potentially being drawn into a wider conflict between the West and China.
Unofficially named the Pukpuk Treaty, Based on the Tok Pisin word meaning “crocodile”, it was Port Moresby’s first mutual defense pact and brought the two regional allies closer together at a time of growing Chinese influence in the Pacific.
Beyond the details of crisis coordination and cooperation, the agreement also allows 10,000 Papua New Guineans to join the Australian Defense Force, or ADF, and become eligible for Australian citizenship.
Supporters of the treaty say that in a country where 58% of the population is under 25 and, according to World Bank data, 3.8% youth unemployment, the opportunity is too great to ignore.
“I agree with the Pukpuk Compact. It is an employment opportunity for our growing youth who cannot find jobs after leaving school,” Joe Kau, a former colonel in the Papua New Guinea Defense Force, or PNGDF, told RFA. “Our country’s leaders have no idea how to address the lack of jobs for school leavers.”
Kau said it would be good for young Papua New Guineans to acquire Australian citizenship because earning an Australian salary would allow them to care for their extended families.
But he also understood that the treaty meant that Papua New Guineans could be called upon by Australia in the event of war.
“I have no problem as long as it’s a just cause,” Kau said.
The citizenship-for-service deal was a major selling point of the Pukpuk pact. Shortly after the treaty was announced in August 2025, Papua New Guinea Defense Minister Billy Joseph told Australian media that there was “a very large pool” of young Papua New Guineans “and Australia could have as many as it wanted”.
He added that recruitment would take place in regional centers and the capital Port Moresby.
Shared opinion
But on the streets of Port Moresby, not everyone is lining up to enlist. Chris Pole, a young Papua New Guinean, told RFA he found it hard to believe the treaty would allow 10,000 Papua New Guineans to join the Australian army, especially when the PNGDF only has 4,000 troops.
“The number of Pukpuk recruitments alone will exceed that of the PNGDF, so if there is a war, Australia will definitely use Papua New Guineans as pawns,” he said, noting that pawns in a chess game are often sacrificed to protect more valuable pieces. “Papua New Guineans will be sought out first when there is a war and put on the front line if Australia decides to support the United States in a war against China. »
Australia also entered into a mutual defense agreement with the United States and New Zealand under the 1951 ANZUS Treaty, and Washington entered into a defense cooperation agreement with Port Moresby in 2023.
Pole called on the country to remain in its traditional neutral foreign policy stance of being “the friend of all, the enemy of none.”
But Bosco Bothoa, another young Papua New Guinean, told RFA he would love to serve if it meant he became an Australian.
“I would certainly like to be an Australian citizen, as the compact states, of course,” he said. “In Australia, the standard of living is better than in PNG and the salary would be higher.”
But Bothoa also understood the responsibilities that could come with enlisting and acquiring a new citizenship. Asked if he would be prepared to fight if war broke out in the Pacific, he replied: “War is not the be-all and end-all”, but if it does occur, “then we will have to serve our country as Australian citizens.”
Bothoa and others who want to enlist may have to wait. In a Facebook post on January 4, the PNG Ministry of Defense indicated that the first phase of recruitment under the plan would only be open to Papua New Guinean citizens with permanent resident status in Australia. The second phase would begin at a later date and include applicants living in Papua New Guinea.
The PNGDF told RFA that the recruitment process had not yet been finalized and remained under consultation.
Mutually beneficial
The Pukpuk treaty is a win-win, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies. In an article published shortly after the signing of the treaty, the think tank said the treaty deepened relations between the two countries and that enlisting Papua New Guineans in the ADF would be beneficial to both sides.
“Given the ADF’s recruitment difficulties and the understrength of the PNG defense forces, this agreement has clear benefits for both countries,” the article said. “As a mutual defense treaty, the Pukpuk Treaty constitutes both a continuation of previous aspects of the Australia-PNG relationship, but also represents a fundamental shift in the depth of that relationship.”
But the treaty could be at odds with Papua New Guinea’s constitution, Jerry Singirok, a former Papua New Guinean two-star general turned defense strategist, told RFA.
“No matter how the Papua New Guinea government wants to justify the integration of a foreign force, our constitution does not provide for military integration with a foreign power,” he said. “The PNG Defense Force is mandated to serve PNG’s sovereign interests and any agreement integrating the PNGDF with the Australian Defense Force or aligning PNG’s military doctrine with that of Australia could be seen as undermining PNG’s national sovereignty, violating the principle of non-alignment that PNG has historically supported. »
He said unless there was an amendment to the constitution, the legality of the Pukpuk treaty could be challenged in court.
Before the signing of the treaty, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Papua New Guinea said that China “adhers to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries”, adding that the treaty should not prevent Port Moresby from cooperating with any third party, nor target any third party or harm its “legitimate interests”.
The treaty does not mention China by name.
Edited by Eugene Whong.