President Widodo concludes State visit to PNG

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Neill  has expressed satisfaction with the outcome of meetings that that took place with the President of Indonesia, H.E. Joko Widodo, during his State Visit on 11-12 May.

During the two days of meetings, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia discussed a range of issues that include increasing cross border cooperation for energy production and crime prevention, and deeper engagement in multilateral forums including the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

“We have agreed to provide Papua New Guinea’s support for Indonesia having associate membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, which Papua New Guinea will gladly endorse and pursue with the other leaders of the Melanesian group.

“This will enable the five Melanesian provinces in Indonesia to participate in cultural, trade and investment engagement between our Melanesian countries and communities within the region.

“This will also enable Melanesian people to participate in sporting events and other activities of cultural significance.

“We will further strengthen our own relationship with Melanesians of which 11 million are on the Indonesian side of our border.

“I again salute the President for his courage in ensuring that we take a step forward in the relationship on how we engage with the Melanesians in the Indonesian provinces.

“This is truly a unique understanding that has been reached between the two Governments.”

Prime Minister O’Neill said there will be a further enhancement of cross-border trade that ranges from grassroots commerce and SME exchange, through to major utilities trade.

“We agreed to strengthen economic opportunities along the border region where Indonesia is investing in infrastructure that we would like to have access.

“This includes telecommunications, power generation and the road infrastructure that is being built and has a waiting market in Papua New Guinea.”

The Prime Minister further highlighted engagement between the two countries in other multilateral forums. This includes APEC where he said Indonesia was Papua New Guinea’s biggest supporter in securing the opportunity to host APEC in 2018, and in ASEAN where Papua New Guinea has Special Observer status.

“Indonesia is also our number one supporter in our engagement in the ASEAN countries and the ASEAN region, and for this we are grateful.”

The two countries also signed an MOU on Co-operation in Preventing and Combating Transnational Crime, and an MOU on Co-operation in the Field of Human Resource Development in Petroleum and Energy.