Australia PM leaves Papua New Guinea minus deal
MELBOURNE—Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday was unable to clinch an ambitious defense treaty with Papua New Guinea during a visit to the country, a week after he failed to land a security pact with another South Pacific island neighbor, Vanuatu, aimed at curbing China’s influence in the region.
Albanese had announced that the bilateral treaty with Papua New Guinea would be signed during his three-day visit to the country’s capital of Port Moresby that ended on Wednesday.
But a Papua New Guinea Cabinet meeting scheduled for Monday to endorse the treaty never took place.
Instead of signing the treaty, Albanese and his Papua New Guinea counterpart James Marape released a communique on Wednesday that said the text had been agreed on and the document would be signed “following Cabinet processes in both countries.”
