Twenty young and emerging leaders from Papua New Guinea and Australia gathered in Port Moresby from 26–30 May for the 2025 Australia–Papua New Guinea Network Emerging Leaders Dialogue. This report outlines the outcomes of the Dialogue, providing five key recommendations of the emerging leaders.

The Pacific Islands have become an arena of intensifying geopolitical competition. This policy brief proposes Australia should lead the creation of a formal intelligence-sharing framework – a 'Pacific Eyes agreement' – initially involving Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji, the four most closely aligned countries in the region.

Pacific Islanders have found their region, previously undervalued by larger powers, now a focal point for strategic competition. Faced with this new “great game”, Pacific Island countries have become diplomatic price-setters and are leveraging increased competition to maximise development benefits. But unbridled strategic rivalry also presents challenges to good governance and transparency in the region...

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a small, but rapidly growing digital footprint, with new mobile phone, internet, and social media users joining the digital realm every year. The author of this report argues that supporting PNG’s digital transformation will unleash the massive potential for positive economic and social change within PNG’s youth sector.