Australia and Papua New Guinea have been urged to prevent a brain drain as the nations look to deepen co-operation between their militaries under a new defence treaty.

Analysts have been quick to link the new defence treaty with Australia ... Because it’s only three kilometres from Australian territory, PNG has always been a particular concern.

The announcement comes just 14 months after the two nations signed a landmark security agreement, and three months after they inked a $600 million deal handing PNG its own NRL team in return for ...