Bougainville’s leaders issued a declaration last week setting Sept. 1, 2027 as independence day.
Brisbane and Port Moresby
Top Pacific diplomats ready for direct talks on Bougainville independence
People waiting to vote in Bougainville’s capital Buka during the referendum on independence, pictured on Nov. 23, 2019.
Stefan Armbruster
The Pacific’s peak diplomatic bodies have signaled they are ready to engage with Papua New Guinea’s Autonomous Government of Bougainville as mediation begins on the delayed ratification of its successful 2019 independence referendum.
PNG and Bougainville’s leaders met in the capital Port Moresby this week with a moderator to start negotiations on the implementation of the U.N.-supervised Bougainville Peace Agreement and referendum.
Ahead of the talks, ABG’s President Ishmael Toroama moved to sideline a key sticking point over PNG parliamentary ratification of the vote, with the announcement last week that Bougainville would unilaterally declare independence on Sept. 1, 2027.
The region’s two leading intergovernmental organizations - Pacific Islands Forum and Melanesian Spearhead Group - have traditionally deferred to member state PNG on discussion of Bougainville independence, as an internal matter.
But as a declaration of nationhood becomes increasingly likely and near, there has been a subtle shift.
“It’s their (PNG’s) prerogative but if this matter were raised, even by Bougainville themselves, we can start discussion on that,” PIF secretary-general Baron Waqa told a press briefing at its headquarters in Fiji on Monday.
“Whatever happens, I think the issue would have to be decided by our leaders later this year,” he said of the annual PIF meeting to be held in Solomon Islands in September.
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PNG Prime Minister James Marape (second from left) and Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama (right) during mediation in the capital Port Moresby, pictured on Mar. 16, 2025. (Autonomous Government of Bougainville)
The last time the Pacific’s leaders included discussion of Bougainville in their official communique was in 2004 to mark the disarmament of the island under the peace deal.
Waqa said Bougainville had made no formal approach to PIF - a grouping of 18 Pacific states and territories - but it was closely monitoring developments on what could eventually lead to the creation of a new member state.
In 2024, Tororama told BenarNews he would be seeking observer status at the subregional MSG – grouping PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s FLNKS – as Bougainville’s first diplomatic foray.
No application has been made yet but MSG acting director general Ilan Kiloe told BenarNews they were also keeping a close watch.
“Our rules and regulations require that we engage through PNG and we will take our cue from them,” Kiloe said, adding while the MSG respects the sovereignty of its members, “if requested, we will provide assistance” to Bougainville.
“The purpose and reason the MSG was established initially was to advance the collective interests of the Melanesian countries, in particular, to assist those yet to attain independence,” he said. “And to provide support towards their aim of becoming independent countries.”
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Map showing Papua New Guinea, its neighboring countries and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. (BenarNews)
The 2001 peace agreement ended more than a decade of bloody conflict known as the Bougainville crisis, that resulted in the deaths of up to 15,000 people, and laid out a roadmap for disarmament and the referendum in 2019.
Under the agreement, PNG retains responsibility for foreign affairs but allows for the ABG to engage externally for trade and with “regional organizations.”
“We need countries to support us, we need to talk to those countries (ahead of independence),” Toroama told Benar News last September.
The referendum on independence was supported by 97.7% of Bougainvillians and the outcome was due to be ratified by PNG’s parliament in 2020, but was deferred because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Discussions by the two parties since on whether a simple or two-thirds majority vote by parliamentarians was required has further delayed the process.
Toroama stood firm on the issue of ratification on the first day of discussions moderated by New Zealand’s Sir Jerry Mataparae, saying his people voted for independence and the talks were to define the “new relationship” between two independent states.
Last week the 15 members of the Bougainville Leaders Independence Consultation Forum issued a statement declaring PNG has no authority to veto the referendum result and recommended Sept. 1, 2027 as the declaration date.
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Bougainville Leaders Consultative Forum declaration setting Sept. 1, 2027, as the date for their independence declaration. (Autonomous Government of Bougainville)
“As far as I am concerned, the process of negotiating independence was concluded with the referendum,” Toroama said.
“My understanding is that this moderation is about reaching agreement on implementing the referendum result of independence.”
He told Marape “to take ownership and endorse independence in this 11th parliament.”
PNG’s prime minister responded by praising the 25 years of peace “without a single bullet fired” but warned Bougainville was not ready for independence.
“Economic independence must precede political independence,” Marape said. “The long-term sustainability of Bougainville must be factored into these discussions.”
“About 95% of Bougainville’s budget is currently reliant on external support, including funding from the PNG government and international donors.”
Proposals to reopen Rio Tinto’s former Panguna gold and copper mine in Bougainville, that sparked its civil conflict, is a regular feature of debate about its economic future.
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Front page of the Post Courier newspaper after the first day of mediation on Bougainville’s independence, pictured on Mar. 16, 2025. (Post Courier)
Marape also suggested people may be secretly harboring weapons in breach of the peace agreement and called on the U.N. to clarify the outcome of the disarmament process it supervised.
“Headlines have come out that guns remain in Bougainville. United Nations, how come guns remain in Bougainville?” Marape asked on Monday.
“You need to tell me. This is something you know. I thought all guns were removed from Bougainville.”
By comparison, PNG has heavily relied on foreign financial assistance since independence, currently receiving at about US$320 million (1.3 billion kina) a year in budgetary support from Australia, and suffers regular tribal violence and massacres involving firearms including assault rifles.
Bougainville Vice President Patrick Nisira rejected Marape’s concerns about weapons, the Post Courier newspaper reported.
“The usage of those guns, there is no evidence of that and if you look at the data on Bougainville where (there are) incidents of guns, it is actually very low,” he said.
Further talks are planned and are due to produce a report for the national parliament by mid-2025, ahead of elections in Bougainville and PNG’s 50th anniversary celebrations in September.