Rugby League Aiding Diplomacy in the South Pacific.
- E. J. Williams
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
The National Rugby League (NRL) is the most watched sport on television in Australia; it is also one of the most physical sports in the world, but in recent times it is grabbing headlines for aiding diplomacy in the South Pacific.
Backed by the Australian Government to the tune of $600m, the NRL is in the advanced stages of building a new team that will be based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG).
The addition of the PNG Chiefs into the NRL competition in 2028 is not the first time sport has been used as a tool for diplomacy, but it has certainly been one of the most impactful, considering the tensions created by China's attempts to enter into security deals with certain South Pacific nations, and also other diplomatic disruptions between China and Japan, and the well-documented, and on-going, China-Taiwan dispute.
The deal with the Chiefs will include funding for local infrastructure and junior development, but the money also comes with the proviso that the PNG Government does not sign any deals with the Chinese that would allow that nations military or police to be based in PNG.
Why Rugby League?
As mentioned, the PNG Chiefs addition to the NRL competition is not the first time sport has been used in international diplomacy, but to understand why the deal between Canberra, the NRL and Port Moresby has appeared to tick all the boxes so far, is to understand how popular the sport of rugby league is in PNG.
Rugby League has been played in PNG for many years. The often lop-sided, but fiercely contested, matches between Australian national teams and the Kumuls (beginning in 1982), followed by the Prime Minister XIII encounters, gave a hint to the wider rugby league community as to how popular the sport is in PNG.
The introduction of a PNG team to the QRL Queensland Cup competition in 2014 laid further foundations for the PNG Chiefs, providing the emerging rugby league nation with week-in week-out tough competition.
The PNG Chiefs deal is only part of a wider plan to unify a region through sport. Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are just some of the nations that compete in regular internationals, but the timing of recent meetings between Pacific leaders and a Chinese military test may have added extra impetus to the NRL-PNG deal.
A Chinese Missile and Sport Unites Pacific Nations
It has been widely reported that China has attempted to make its presence felt in the South Pacific. In 2022 China and Samoa signed a bilateral agreement, which included security measures.
By 2026, and after a series of provocative acts by the Chinese military in the South China Sea, and international waters around Australia, tensions in the region were understandably high.
A landmark agreement between Australia and Fiji , dubbed the Ocean of Peace Alliance, and signed by the respective prime ministers, Anthony Albanese and Sitiveni Rabuka coincided with the test-fire of a Chinese long-range missile, which landed into the sea, just north of Fiji.
The firing of the missile with a dummy-warhead (capable of carrying a nuclear warhead), brought a stinging rebuke from the Fijian and Australian Prime Ministers, which was echoed across the South Pacific.
In a timely show of solidarity that coincided with the Australian Governments backing of the PNG Chiefs, Anthony Albanese and Chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, Peter V'landys were photographed along side the leaders of Tonga, PNG and Samoa at the State of Origin rugby league match in Brisbane on 8 July.
While the sport of rugby league may be assisting in strengthening diplomatic ties in the South Pacific, the provocative act by the Chinese in firing a missile into the South Pacific may be a wake-up call for the Australian Government in terms of defence.
Recently, a US defence expert and Atlantic Council director, Markus Garlauskas, was shocked by the unwillingness of Australian politicians to publicly call-out China as "...a threat to Australia's national security."
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