PM Marape invites newly elected Australian Prime Minister to PNG

 Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has invited newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to visit PNG after the elections.

And Mr Marape stands ready to reciprocate the visit given a formal invite by Mr Albanese as he is confident of being called upon to form the next government and continue with his policies.

This week, PM Marape released that he has become one of the first world leaders to have a meeting with Albanese three days ago from a 15-minute zoom meeting in Canberra on his first day in office since the Australian Labour Party (ALP) won the national elections in Australia on May 21.

PM Marape thanked Mr Albanese for Australia’s support of the 2022 General Election by way of printing ballot papers, and much-needed air logistics support through the Australian Defence Force.

This follows on from a meeting between PM Marape and a representative of Mr Alabanese, on the sidelines of the Australia-Papua New Guinea Business Forum in Brisbane last Tuesday, while he was attending another meeting in Japan.

The ALP has been a strong supporter of PNG over the years, and through then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, granted Independence to PNG.

Mr Alabanese’s Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, is a good friend of PNG.

PM Marape invited Mr Albanese to visit PNG after the elections and the Australian Prime Minister reciprocated by inviting him to visit Australia.

“Let me thank you for Australia’s support to us thus far, not only since 1975, but more importantly over the last two years,” PM Marape told Mr Albanese.

“Your predecessor (Mr Scott Morrison), the Government and people of Australia have given us good support since COVID-19 came in and affected our economy.

When we were trying to restructure our budgeting, on infrastructure needs, there was a lot of help from Australia.”

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