Marape, team to attend UN meeting in New York, Eoe is acting PM

PRIME Minister James Marape is leading a ministerial delegation to the 76th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) from tomorrow to Sunday in New York.
He appointed Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Soroi Eoe as acting Prime Minister in his absence.
According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Department, this will be Marape’s first visit to the UNGA and United States of America in his capacity as Head of Government during this Coronavirus (Covid-19) period.
He will also engage in a bilateral meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Gueterres on current UN assistance to PNG and how future assistance could be drawn down.
Marape will participate in a Pacific Islands Forum Leaders virtual meeting with Gueterres and will deliver a statement on the impact of Covid-19 in the Pacific region.
He will also engage in a series of virtual meetings including with US secretary John Kerry, special presidential envoy for Climate Change, with Pacific Island Leaders and advocate for effective drawdown of climate adaptation and mitigation funds for PNG from the global community, some of which are major contributors to global warming.
Marape will deliver the PNG country statement to the UN General Assembly on Friday, New York time.
In this statement, Marape will inform on PNG’s development issues, how the UN can better complement it and PNG’s progress towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
He will also inform the global community, particularly certain industrialised countries, to support Small Island States that are adversely impacted by global warming through no fault of theirs.
“On forest conservation, the message will be for global climate fund institutions that continuously tell us to preserve our vast tracts of rainforest, to pay those development dollars for our basic services such as health, education and quality economic infrastructure,” Marape said.
Following his attendance at the 76th UNGA, Marape and his entourage will fly to Houston to meet with the ExxonMobil chief executive officer to discuss and conclude the heads of agreement for P’nyang Gas Projects.
Marape and ExxonMobil will also review how PNG LNG was tracking after seven years of production.
This will be the first time a PNG national leader is visiting the global headquarters of ExxonMobil.
Marape and his entourage have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before travel.