Australia, PNG looking to sign security treaty

AUSTRALIA and Papua New Guinea are looking into signing a bilateral security treaty at the ministerial forum that will be held in Canberra next month.
Australia Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said that the bilateral security treaty was looking at elevating all the current arrangements in place by putting it at a treaty level.
“Which is appropriate and seeing how close the two countries are, we will continue to work with PNG and we hope we can do this relatively quickly because the substance which underpins it is already there and is already in place.”
Marles said in terms of defence, Australia saw defence cooperation between PNG and Australia as an example of the strong path of the existing relationship.
“We have Papua New Guinea Defence Force officers been trained in Australia and we have many Australian Defence Force officers coming through Papua New Guinea building their experience, which is very beneficial for both defence forces,” Marles said.
“PNG security cooperation, our relationship
continues to grow, talk to PNG if this requires evolution, what really matters is that we want to see growth.”
Marles said that the security treaty will be
one of the things that will be discussed between Papua New Guinea and Australia at the ministerial forum.