Papua New Guinea gains a team in Australian rugby league in diplomatic push aimed at curbing China

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Papua New Guinea will gain its own team in Australia's rugby league in a soft diplomacy deal announced Thursday linked to limiting Chinese influence in the South Pacific.

The Australian government will spend 600 million Australian dollars ($380 million) over a decade to add a team from its nearest neighbor to the National Rugby League from 2028.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Papua New Guinea counterpart James Marape announced the deal at a Sydney news conference. They also announced that a bilateral security deal struck a year ago had officially come into force.

China has pursued its own bilateral security pact on policing with Papua New Guinea and with other South Pacific island nations which U.S. allies including Australia fear could undermine regional security.

Rugby league is the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea, a poor population of 12 million mostly subsistence farmers that is racked by tribal violence, worsening violent crime and civil unrest.

Marape said the security deal with Australia "fits in neatly" with ensuring the safety of players and officials who would be based in the capital Port Moresby.

"The player is safe when we have good rapport between our two police” forces, Marape told reporters.

The prime ministers said in a joint statement the security agreement "ensures consultation on security-related developments."

Albanese did not directly answer when asked by a reporter if the agreement would prevent Papua New Guinea from striking a security deal with China.

"Security in Pacific is primarily the responsibility of the Pacific family is a principle that we share," Albanese said.

Marape said the security pact with Australia was in his country's interests.

"Australia is a security partner of choice in the first instance," Marape said.

"That doesn't stop us from relating with any nation, especially our Asian neighbors. We relate with China, for instance, a great trading partner, a great bilateral partner, but on security, closer to home we have this synergy and our shared territory needs to be protected, defended, policed," Marape added.

Marape described the deal to create a Port Moresby-based football team as "pivotal in … anchoring" the Papua New Guinea-Australia relationship.

"At the heart of every foreign relationship lies people-to-people relations. Foreign relations minus people-to-people relations is completely in vain," Marape said.

The security pact signed by Albanese and Marape a year ago strengthened Australia's place as the preferred security partner. It was signed six months later than initially planned.

The original June 2023, date was abandoned after a security deal struck between the United States and Marape's government sparked protests in the South Pacific nation a month earlier over concerns that it undermined Papua New Guinea's sovereignty.

Australia agreed to support Papua New Guinea's internal security in areas of policing, courts and prisons.

Australia has also helped Papua New Guinea build a new police training center in the Port Moresby that will be open to recruits from other Pacific nations.