O'Neill and Abbott to meet today

THE Prime Minister  of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Neill and his counterpart  Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott will have an opportunity to discuss bilateral issues when they meet today in Canberra. 

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, said it is important that ongoing high-level dialogue takes place with the nation’s close partner countries.

Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, will host the discussion in his Parliament House office in Australia’s capital city.

“I look forward to meeting with Tony Abbott tomorrow,” PM O’Neill said from the 13th Papua New Guinea Mining and Petroleum Investment Conference in Sydney.

“There are always a number of ongoing bilateral matters to discuss between our two countries and it is important to maintain communications.

“There is a strong partnership between Australia and Papua New Guinea and we will continue to build on this relationship.

“We have a number of ongoing partnership arrangements that are relevant to Papua New Guinea’s core government policy areas such as education and healthcare.

“Australia has also been very supportive in relation to preparations for Papua New Guinea to host the APEC process in 2018 that will conclude with the Leaders’ Summit.”

PM O’Neill said he and the Australian Prime Minister have a good working relationship and have regular contact.

While they met informally on the sidelines of APEC and at the Gough Whitlam Memorial in November, their last formal meeting was when Prime Minister Abbott visited Port Moresby in October.