Australia to mend ties with PNG
Australia to mend ties with PNG
CANBERRA (Reuter): Australia will seek to repair its ties with neighboring Papua New Guinea when foreign minister Alexander Downer makes a brief visit to meet leaders of the new government in Port Moresby next week.
Canberra placed great importance on its relations with Papua New Guinea and wanted to reinvigorate the relationship, officials said yesterday.
Relations between Australia and its northern neighbor have been hit this year by Canberra's criticism of a plan to use mercenaries to end the nine-year Bougainville rebellion and by the leaking of a secret Australian report critical of South Pacific leaders, including key PNG officials.
Downer will meet Prime Minister Bill Skate, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Haiveta, foreign minister Kilroy Genia and other government and business leaders during a 24-hour trip beginning Sunday.
Haiveta, finance minister and deputy prime minister in the former government, was strongly criticized over his political performance in the recently published top secret assessment, which has also hit Canberra's relations with other South Pacific governments.
Australia's relations with PNG also soured early this year when Canberra criticized the former government's plans to hire African mercenaries to quell the secessionist rebellion on Bougainville.
That plan sparked an army mutiny and civil protests in Port Moresby, forcing Haiveta and other key officials, including then- prime minister Sir Julius Chan, to temporarily stand aside.
"The purpose of Mr Downer's visit is to engage with the new PNG government," one Australian official said.
Downer is the first foreign government representative to visit for talks with the new government after July elections.
"It's clearly, in terms of what it says about the importance that both sides attach to the relationship, an important occasion," he said.
Other items on the agenda include aid, PNG's economic reforms and law and order.
Australia is Papua New Guinea's biggest aid donor.