Marape to open embassy in Israel

By REBECCA KUKU
PAPUA New Guinea will next week open an embassy in Jerusalem when Prime Minister James Marape visits Israel.
Marape, also the foreign affairs minister, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
But his office confirmed that the embassy is expected to be opened on Sept 5.
Marape’s visit is from Sept 4 to Sept 6.
According to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is scheduled to meet with Marape on Sept 5.
PNG does not have an embassy in Israel but maintains a consulate near Tel Aviv. But most diplomatic correspondence are handled by the PNG high commission in Australia.
The two countries established diplomatic ties in 1978.
In February this year, then Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko announced that Papua New Guinea would set up its embassy in Jerusalem after talking to his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen.
Tkatchenko said that PNG wanted to work closely with Israel in economic empowerment, agriculture, industry and commerce.
More than K100 million has been allocated to Foreign Affairs in this year’s budget, and additional funding is expected to be allocated in the 2024 and 2025 budgets to build new overseas missions, renovate and maintain old ones.
PNG has 22 foreign missions and an additional three on the way – in the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and Switzerland.