Australia prime minister to attend NATO summit in July

FILE PHOTO: Anthony Albanese, Australia's Prime Minister, attends the 2nd ASEAN Global Dialogue during the ASEAN summit held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia November 13, 2022. REUTERS/Cindy Liu

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend the NATO summit in July, his office said on Friday, days after his New Zealand counterpart, Chris Hipkins, confirmed his attendance.

Australia and New Zealand are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but have a decades-long relationship with the Western alliance. Both countries attended last year's summit in Madrid as non-member participants.