Australian prime minister defers meeting to next year

PRIME Minister James Marape says that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has deferred his visit to Papua New Guinea to next year after testing positive to Coronavirus (Covid-19) on Tuesday.
Albanese was scheduled to visit PNG next week (Dec 12 to Dec 13).
Marape wished Albanese full recovery and looked forward to his visit early next year.
“Because of this, we both agreed that he will move his travel to us to early next year, to a date to be confirmed later,” Marape said in a statement yesterday.
Marape said Australia remained an important bi-lateral partner to Papua New Guinea and that the country valued Albanese’s visit.
“Australia is an important bi-lateral nation to us.
“In fact, the Number 1 bi-lateral relationship we have is with Australia,” Marape said.
“In the last three years, Australia has given more support in terms of grant and concessional loans.
“So the Australia Prime Minister’s intention to come here is very much welcomed in that visit.
“We will entrench our relationship with Australia and elevate it to the highest we can have. It was from Australia we gained our Independence in 1975 as we are now approaching 50 years of nationhood. There will be some contemporary as well as historical issues we will discuss to make sure our relationship is strengthened for both nations going forward.”
Some of these matters, Marape said, would include the engagement of Papua New Guineans in Australia both in qualified and casual employment.
“Australia is opening up the market for more Papua New Guineans to work in Australia,” Marape said.
“Australia is also opening up more opportunities for more Papua New Guineans to be educated in Australia.
“Part of this is that our Pangu-led Government has been working to reconfigure the Australia-PNG relationship which, we have felt, has not been progressed in the last decade to an ‘optimum’ level.