Melbourne, Australia (AP) – Australia and Papua New Guinea The Defense Forces will be integrated under a new security agreement signed this week, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese He said on Monday as his government attempts to curb China’s security impact in the region.
Albanese said he and his Papua’s New Guinea counterpart, James Murrapesigning the agreement on Wednesday, the day after celebrating its 50th anniversary of independence from Australia.
US Secretary of State Christopher Landau is also in Port Moresby’s capital of Papua New Guinea for celebrations.
“This is a very important upgrade in our defence relationship,” Albanese told Australia’s Broadcasting Company in Perth, Western Australia before flying to Australia’s closest neighbor.
“It provides mutual defense, meaning we provide support to each other and provide integration of assets and interoperability between our respective defence forces,” added Albanese.
Its estimated population is around 12 million, and Papua New Guinea is the most populous country in the South Pacific since Australia. There are 27 million people in Australia.
This agreement allows citizens of the nation to serve either army. Australia will provide Australian citizenship as an incentive to enlist in the Australian army.
Currently, Australia is only accepting recruits Five Eyes Intelligence sharing partners including the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.
The three Pacific Island countries have changed their loyalty from Taiwan to Beijing since 2019 and since 2019, as China’s influence grew in the region. The US and its allies are particularly concerned about the shaking shaking in China’s security through police training in Fiji, Kilibati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Australia and Papua New Guinea signed Security contract In 2023, the two countries expanded their defense cooperation and strengthened Australia’s position as a priority security partner in the region.
The signature was delayed six months after another security transaction occurred between the US, and the Malape government sparked a protest in Papua New Guinea in May 2023.
Oliver Nobetau, project director for the Australia-Papua New Guinea Network, an international policy think tank at the Sydney-based Roy Institute, said the wording regarding the “exclusiveness” of the new Australia-PAPUA New Guinea Agreement partnership is important.
Several Pacific Island countries have avoided negotiating broadening strategic competition between US allies and China.
Nobetau said that for Australia, it would be a big win if it were a security partner in a country like Papua New Guinea,” Nobetau said.
“We know that the Pacific countries in PNG in particular are highly asserted to protect their sovereignty, meaning that we will remove the types of languages that exclude third-party partnerships,” he added.
Albanese wanted to sign a security and economic treaty Vanuatu last week. However, concerns within its island government about how the deal would affect its ability to secure infrastructure funding from China expanded negotiations.
Australia’s Minister of Defense Richard Marless He said the new bilateral treaty would replace the agreement that was hit by the newly independent Papua New Guinea in 1977.
“This is a transformative agreement between ourselves and the PNG,” Marless said.
Australia continues to discuss Fiji and Tonga Marz said he has promoted bilateral defense cooperation.
