The Headquarters of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) at Murray Barracks for 50 years through its administration, has greatly delivered and supported government and civic programs in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since its establishment in 1973.
Speaking at the recent 50th Anniversary celebration at the Headquarters in Port Moresby city, Commander of Defence Force (CDF) Major General Mark Goina, highlighted the major achievements and operations that were executed by the PNGDF Headquarters.
They include the success of the Vanuatu campaign in 1980 to restore stability and peace on Vanuatu, the restoration of peace and stability on Bougainville, contributing to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), contributing to the United Nation (UN) peace keeping and monitoring mission in Sudan and South Sudan, delivering infrastructure and supporting the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) on internal security operations in the highlands and other parts of the country.
“I am proud of our headquarters to deliver many of these key events, these also include continued deployment of our forces along our land and maritime borders, delivering of infrastructure capabilities, exercise, operations and trainings in partnership with our defence partners, signing of status of force agreements, and defence cooperation agreements with our defence partners.”
Other activities performed by the PNGDF in the last 50 years include supporting the delivery of national events such the APEC meeting in 2018 and the national general elections. Supporting and coordinating disaster relief operations and contributing to nation building through civic action programs.
“As your chief of defence force, I will work closely with the minister for defence and the secretary for defence to ensure that the defence council supports the PNGDF to continue to perform these tasks in support of our government and our people,” said the CDF.
Goina added that through this relationship between the PNGDF and the defence council, the defence force saw many achievements and successes, and faced and addressed many challenges over the years.
He went on to say that these events that have occurred have shaped the size and structure of the headquarters of the PNGDF, as well as the defence force itself.