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.