Prime Minister Hon. James Marape says Australia and Papua New Guinea have always been “so close”.
He said this during an Australia Day reception at the Australian High Commission on Tuesday (Jan 26, 2021). PM Marape cited, as an example of this closeness, the fact that he had known Australian Prime Minister, Hon. Scott Morrison, since 2008 when he was in the Opposition benches in the Australian Parliament.
He said PM Morrison had at that time taken a group across the Kokoda Trail.
“That is symbolic,” PM Marape said.
“Many Australians, in their own time, always had an occasion for Papua New Guinea. “We’ve been close over many, many years. “In fact, our shared history goes past our Independence in 1975. “Since creation by God, the Creator, Australia and PNG have been this close thus far, and if I’m not wrong, will be this close into the perpetual future.”
PM Marape said PNG was “privileged” to have Australia as a “close neighbour”. “Australia has not only been physically close to us, but in every sense, very, very close to us,” he said.
“They have been our strongest, biggest, quickest and easiest supporter in as far as bilateral relationships have been thus far. We highly value our strong and vibrant bilateral relationship.”
PM Marape said relationships with Australia had been further elevated with PM Morrison through more trade.
“That has been encapsulated in a very important document we signed called ‘Comprehensive Strategic Economic Partnership’,” he said.
“That now elevates our relationship to two partner nations who will share the future together, and especially the economic gains in both spaces we live in – the Australian economic space as well as the Papua New Guinea economic space – going into the future.”
“Papua New Guinea still remains a nation of great potential. We have been largely underutilized in as far as harvesting our resources sustainably, to ensure our country gains, but more importantly, our region also participates in meaningful gain from resources God has abundantly blessed our country with.”
PM Marape thanked the Australian Government, in what was a first since 1975, for direct intervention of almost K1.5 billion in the PNG Budget – “something never done before”.
“For some reason, the Government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, decided to pick the moment we took office,” he said.
“This has nothing to do with him and me, but more to do with the sincerity, the matter in which we opened our books to Australia, ADB, World Bank, IMF. “The Australian Government, seeing the reforms we were doing and seeing our honesty, decided to ensure for the first time that we received over K1.47 billion with zero per cent (interest) against the lending.”
“They ensured that we sailed past 2019, in what was a hard year, but more importantly, we were able to successfully deliver over 95 per cent of our Budget deliverables in 2020.”
PM Marape said PNG had assisted Australia during the 2020 bushfire “and when Papua New Guinea gets stronger, bigger and better into the future, we will stand with Australia as a partner in sharing development assistance to our region”.
PM Marape also thanked Australia for its COVID-19 intervention in 2020.