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Australia Signs Security Agreement With Papua New Guinea

by Reuters

   canberra, australia --

   Australia and neighboring Papua New Guinea signed a bilateral security
   agreement Thursday that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and counterpart
   James Marape said showed the closeness of the two nations.

   The deal is designed to bolster Papua New Guinea's internal security
   through more assistance in policing, defense and the judiciary as the
   Pacific Islands' largest nation seeks to develop its economy.

   Amid strategic competition between China and the United States in the
   region, PNG signed a defense deal with the United States in May to
   upgrade its military bases and is also boosting trade ties with China.

   Marape told reporters on Thursday the security agreement with Australia
   showed they were "brother and sister nations," but added PNG would not
   pick sides and had a foreign policy of "friends to all."

   "This is a comprehensive and historic agreement. It will make it easier
   for Australia to help PNG address its internal security needs,"
   Albanese told a press conference in Canberra.

   He paid tribute to the support PNG's population gave to Australian
   servicemen during World War II, and said it was a defense relationship
   forged through giving lives.

   "For our interests going forward, we have no closer friends than Papua
   New Guinea," Albanese said.

   The structure of PNG's judiciary, public service, and borders were
   established by Australia before PNG became an independent nation 48
   years ago, Marape said.

   "You have always given support to us," he said. "What happens up north
   of your borders has deep, deep shared effect, benefit, consequences, on
   our region."