Southwest Papua was officially ratified as the sixth province in West Papua, Indonesia on November 11, 2022. Southwest Papua is a division of West Papua Province.

The capital city of Southwest Papua Province is domiciled in Sorong City. The area of Southwest Papua Province includes Sorong Regency, Sorong City, South Sorong Regency, Maybrat Regency, Tambrauw Regency and Raja Ampat Regency. the total area of Southwest Papua Province is 38,820.90 square kilometers.

The boundaries of the Southwest Papua Province are:

1. To the north: bordering the Philippines, Palau and the Pacific Ocean;

2. To the east: bordering Manokwari Regency and Teluk Bintuni Regency, West Papua Province;

3. To the west it is bordered by Maluku Province and North Maluku Province; and

4. To the south it is bordered by Fakfak Regency and Kaimana Regency, West Papua Province.

Southwest Papua Province has a variety of potential natural resources and economic resources that can be developed. The northern and eastern parts of Sorong have potential for gas and oil, gold, nickel, iron sand and copper mining are located in the Tambrauw Regency and the southern part of Maybrat Regency. Meanwhile, the potential for coal and iron sand is located in the southern part of Sorong. Potential tourism resources are also found in Raja Ampat Regency which is famous for underwater tourism to foreign countries.

The proposal for the formation of the Southwest Papua Province has actually been rolled out since Papua was not yet separated into the Provinces of Papua and West Papua. At that time, the proposal for the formation of the Southwest Papua Province was carried out before the government reactivated the formation of the West Papua Province whose formation law was annulled by the Indonesian Constitutional Court.

The proposal for the formation of the Southwest Papua Province has been rolling since 2007 with the first declaration in Sorong City on January 5, 2007, and the second declaration in Jayapura on January 12, 2007. became one of the 33 priority bills for discussion in Indonesian Parliament.

However, in the discussion of the 2012-2014 New Autonomous Region (DOB), the proposal for the Draft Law for the formation of the Southwest Papua Province was not included in it. Until finally, the legal basis for the formation of the Southwest Papua Province was ratified in 2022. The bill related to the Formation of the Southwest Papua Province was passed into law at the 10th Plenary Meeting of the Indonesian Parliament for the first session of the 2022-2023 session.