Australia announces new initiatives to help improve PNG's internal security, law and justice as part of major bilateral security agreementAustralia has announced a package of initiatives aimed at strengthening Papua New Guinea's internal security and law and justice priorities under a major bilateral security agreement.
Anthony Albanese and James Marape have deepened security ties with a pact that has a status like a treaty, while Beijing continues its push to expand policing ties with Pacific Island countries.As well as the weapons management program, Australia will provide support for PNG's legal system to help it investigate and prosecute financial crime and assist with making its correctional facilities safer and more secure.
PNG's Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchencko said the security cooperation was in both countries' interests. Australia will also help develop a labour mobility plan to boost PNG's participation in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme and support PNG's ambition of sending 8,000 workers overseas by 2025.
In November, Mr Marape told the ABC his country was caught in a "confluence of interests" in the region, but said PNG's relationship with Australia ranked as number one.Survivors of the PNG landslide say they heard two loud cracks before a mountainside fell on their village