Japan, PNG reaffirm strong ties

 PRIME Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan has just completed a very brief but highly successful visit to Papua New Guinea.

The visit was an eye-opener for the leader of one of the world’s leading industrial nations and one that he will long remember.

The last time that Japan’s political head visited PNG was almost 40 years ago. Since then the two countries have enjoyed a strong and diverse relationship, based on mutual trust and friendship.

Abe and his PNG host, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, sat down to some se­rious discussions last Thursday, the day he and his large delegation of key political and business leaders arrived in two state-owned Boeing 747 aircraft. Noting that next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Papua New Guinea, the two leaders reaffirmed the traditionally friendly and cooperative relationship between the two countries. 

They expressed their determination to play a leading role in ensuring stability and prosperity in the Pacific region.

In the cooperation in economic fields, they stressed the importance of securing stable and competitive energy supply. They welcomed the fact that exports of LNG from Papua New Guinea to Japan started this June, referring to it as a positive contribution to PNG’s economic growth and to Japan’s energy security as it helps diversify supply sources.

Fully recognising the great potential in Papua New Guinea as an investment destination for Japan, the two leaders reaffirmed the importance of enhancing more investment by Japanese companies in PNG, and shared the view that the investment environment here should be further improved, a joint statement said.

O’Neill appreciated Japan’s long-standing development assistance to PNG through official development assistance in areas such as socio-economic infrastructure, human resource development and education. 

Abe expressed his intention to strengthen cooperation in the fields of infrastructure development and human resources development, including the project for the comprehensive development in the Lae-Nazab area, and to promote cooperation in other major areas, including education, disaster risk reduction and climate change from the view point of human security. 

Abe announced an assistance package of about 20 billion Japanese yen through its Overseas Development Assistance (OD) programme over the next three years.

As well, the two leaders highly valued the indispensable role of women in development, and shared the in­tention to cooperate in achieving gender equality in education and employment and women empowerment.

They welcomed the recent high-level mutual visits between the two countries, and shared the intention to maintain the high-level mutual visits and dialogues as well as to promote exchanges between the two countries’ Parliamentarians, including friendly parliamentary leagues.

The two leaders reaffirmed that people-to-people exchange should be facilitated in various fields to further strengthen the friendly ties between the two countries, and reconfirmed the importance of relaxation of visa requirements on a reciprocal basis to this end. In this regard, Prime Minister O’Neill appreciated “JENESYS 2.0” that had invited 69 Papua New Guinea young people to Japan last year and expressed the importance of continued youth exchanges.

In light of the high potential for tourism exchanges between the two countries, they affirmed the importance of enhancing tourism cooperation, and expressed their expectation that the Pacific Islands Tourism Mi­nisters Meeting scheduled to be held in Japan in 2015 would provide useful advice for strengthening efforts towards tourism promotion between Japan and the Pacific region, including PNG.

The two leaders welcomed the continued democratic transformation in Fiji and expressed their intention to support Fiji to ensure that the elections in September would be conducted in a free, fair and credible manner. 

We commend Prime Ministers Abe and O’Neill for their successful summit, which is expected to reap benefits for both countries, especially PNG.