Papua New Guinea, NAWACITApost.com - Papua New Guinea is a close neighbor for Indonesia and we share a long land border.

PNG is also Indonesia's strategic partner in forging deeper partnerships with the Pacific countries.

Indonesia highly appreciates PNG's strong and consistent support for Indonesia sovereignty and territorial integrity.

During our morning walk in Bogor Botanical Garden, we reaffirmed our commitment to maintain strategic trust as the basic principle in pursuing a stronger relation.

Colleagues from the Media,

At the JMC, we exchanged views on the progress of bilateral relations.

I welcome PNG's ratification on two bilateral agreements:

● The Agreement on the Implementation of Visa Exemption for Diplomatic and Official Passport Holders; and

● the Basic Agreement on Border Arrangements.

In the Field of Defense, I mentioned to Minister Tkatchenko of the expectation that PNG will support to expedite the ratification process.

We are also committed to ensure the protection of our citizens abroad.

In this connection, we agreed to task our officials to draft the Agreement on Mandatory Consular Notification.

During the meeting, I also raised a number of issues:

First, on trade cooperation.

I am very pleased to see the continuing positive trend in our bilateral trade, in the last five years.

The reopening of the Wutung – Skouw border after the pandemic, has contributed to the increased number of PNG citizens visiting the Skouw Market.

We still have sufficient room to expand our bilateral trade, beyond cross-border trade, including through:

● Simplifying and streamlining custom clearance processes;

● And Facilitating a stronger logistics network;

● As well as encouraging the establishment of an Indonesia – PNG Joint Business Council.

In the bigger picture, we agreed to take concrete steps to start the negotiation for a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).

Indonesia is committed to expedite the process by preparing a joint feasibility study that will incorporate the views of our two countries.

We also discussed the possible cooperation in engaging Indonesia State Owned Enterprises to invest in PNG, among others in the energy sector, telecommunication services and pharmaceutical industry.

We agreed to explore concrete economic deliverables in the future.

 

Second, on development cooperation.

I reiterated Indonesia's commitment to support the development in the Pacific countries, including in the PNG.

As we strive to grow and prosper together, the IPFD last December has served as a platform for greater engagement between Indonesia and the Pacific, setting out project areas that would support development and prosperity in the Pacific.

Indonesia is committed to strengthen the cooperation on education  to offer scholarships for PNG students.

And we are also committed to continue cooperation in revitalizing public and health facilities in Vanimo and Port Moresby.

Third, on cooperation in the Pacific region.

As part of the Pacific, Indonesia will be relentless to ensure that the Pacific region becomes a part and parcel of a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

As ASEAN Chair, Indonesia aims to promote closer engagement between ASEAN and the Pacific countries, including by encouraging secretariat to secretariat cooperation, between ASEAN and Pacific Islands Forums (PIF).

In this connection, Indonesia invites the Pacific countries, of course including PNG, to participate in the Indo-Pacific Infrastructure Forum (IPIF), as a platform to encourage concrete cooperation among countries in the Indo-Pacific.

We share the same vision that the voice of Pacific must be heard in addressing common global challenges such as climate change disaster management and blue economy.

Indonesia is strongly committed for this cause and will continue to bridging the Pacific into the world.