Prime Minister Chris Hipkins' whistlestop trip to Papua New Guinea sends a clear message: superpowers may come and go, but New Zealand is here to stay.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.

'PNG is a really really important relationship, but also development needs are really very substantial' - Robert Ayson

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins' whistlestop trip to Papua New Guinea sends a clear message: superpowers may come and go, but New Zealand is here to stay.

The US and PNG signing a security deal is the latest iteration of increasing competition in the region, but strategic studies expert Robert Ayson says New Zealand has ways of staying close to its Pacific neighbours - despite the US-China struggle for influence.

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Hipkins touches down in Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby on a muggy Sunday evening, welcomed by a sprawling red carpet, dozens of armed troops and the New Zealand national anthem.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is greeted on arrival in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.

He is there in part to meet for the first time with Pacific and international counterparts - including Cook Islands PM Mark Brown, PNG's James Marape, and India's Narendra Modi - but the centrepiece of the summit was the signing of a defence pact between PNG and the United States.

His meeting with Marape over breakfast just a few hours before the signing left Hipkins with "greater clarity" about what PNG wants out of the deal.

Chris Hipkins shakes hands with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape.

He told reporters it was not just about security but included things like electrification: "I would see this more of an extension of an existing relationship," Hipkins said.

But it goes well beyond a deeper bilateral relationship, giving American forces uninhibited access to PNG's territorial land, waters and airspace in exchange for roughly $45 million dollars' worth of development programmes.

University of Technology students in Lae, Papua New Guinea's second-largest city, protest the signing of the defence cooperation deal with the US.

Ayson says it's a significant step for US access in the region. …

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