Trade Before Troops: Why PNG Needs a Free Trade Agreement with Australia

PNG’s reliance on security treaties and defence cooperation agreements with Australia is understandable given our geographic proximity and historical ties. Yet, the sequencing of our priorities is questionable. Instead of anchoring our bilateral relationship primarily in security, PNG would have been better served by negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with Australia. Economic integration should precede security guarantees. Trade builds independence, and independence funds security.

Australia has a Free Trade Agreement with China—why not with PNG? Instead of another defence treaty, why not build true economic integration first? Because PATCRA II is a non-reciprocal trade agreement or not an equal free trade agreement.

Australia is already our largest trading partner and aid donor. But aid does not translate into economic sovereignty. An FTA would open Australian markets more fully to PNG goods and services, incentivise investment in manufacturing and agriculture, and create a predictable framework for cross-border commerce. This would allow PNG to generate domestic revenues rather than depend on Canberra’s budget allocations. A dependent economy makes for a dependent security apparatus—hardly a foundation for true sovereignty.

China’s experience under Deng Xiaoping offers a striking lesson. The Chinese Communist Party did not prioritise the military in the late 1970s; it prioritised economic reform and trade liberalisation. Deng’s mantra was that “to get rich is glorious,” and only after unleashing decades of rapid growth did Beijing redirect resources into building one of the world’s most modern militaries. Today, China’s ability to project power is inseparable from the economic reforms that came first. PNG could have adapted this model in its relationship with Australia.

Instead, we have placed security first. Australia has offered training, patrol boats, and joint facilities, but without a robust economic base, these assets risk becoming hollow symbols. PNG’s police remain underfunded, border posts under-resourced, and the Defence Force overstretched. Signing defence treaties without a complementary trade framework leaves us reliant on Australian taxpayers to underwrite our security indefinitely. This is not sustainable, nor is it strategically wise.

A bilateral FTA would also transform the political relationship. It would signal that Canberra views PNG as an economic partner, not just a strategic buffer or aid recipient. This would elevate PNG’s standing in regional diplomacy, positioning us as an equal stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific rather than a perpetual security dependent. For Australia, it would mean creating a more resilient neighbour capable of financing its own security rather than constantly leaning on Australian assistance.

Of course, critics might argue that security threats are immediate—transnational crime, illegal fishing, or instability spilling over from nearby conflicts. But the long-term solution to these threats is not more Australian patrol boats; it is a stronger PNG economy that can build and sustain its own security architecture. A bilateral FTA would provide the fiscal base for that self-reliance, ensuring that when PNG patrols its seas or secures its borders, it does so with its own resources.

Sequencing is everything. Deng’s China grew first and militarised later. PNG should trade first and secure later. With Australia, the logic is even more compelling: we already share geography, history, and people-to-people ties. An FTA would knit our economies closer, creating the prosperity that then funds a sovereign security sector. By reversing the current order—security before trade—we risk repeating the mistakes of dependency.

In the end, security purchased through treaties is temporary; security purchased through trade-driven growth is permanent. PNG’s future with Australia must be anchored not in aid or defence pacts, but in a bold free trade agreement that empowers us to build economic independence first, and a credible security sector second. That is the Deng lesson. That should be the PNG–Australia lesson.