Albanese, who later this month heads to Washington for his first formal meeting with President Donald Trump, said Australian foreign policy was based on three pillars: the US alliance, regional engagement and the support of multilateralism.
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He said the Pukpuk treaty was an example of those three pillars at work.
“This is a concrete example of Australia accepting the invitation and the idea from Papua New Guinea that we step up this relationship to an alliance,” he said. “I see this very much as lifting our relationship to the next level.”
The agreement prevents the nations putting in place agreements with other nations that may “compromise” the Pukpuk treaty.
As part of the treaty, Australia and PNG will increase the number of joint military exercises, share more intelligence gathering and recruit citizens into each other’s defence forces.
There are currently about 3990 personnel in PNG’s defence forces, mostly in the army.
Marape has suggested up to 10,000 people from PNG could serve with the Australian Defence Force under the terms of the treaty.
Albanese said that over time “it could be really substantial numbers”. He said PNG citizens would join with residents of the Five Eyes nations – Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Canada and the United States – in being able to join the ADF.
“People who are permanent resident in Australia will have the same rights as current members of Five Eyes to serve and participate in the Australian Defence Force,” he said.
As part of the treaty, defence co-operation between the two nations will substantially increase.
The Coalition’s acting home affairs spokesman, James Paterson, said he welcomed the treaty.
“When reports first broke about a delay in the finalisation of this agreement, I said that I hoped that the Albanese government was able to tidy this up and get this agreed, and I do welcome that they have now done so,” he said.
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