PNG to chair ACP committee of ambassadors

PAPUA New Guinea will chair the committee of ambassadors in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group from August.
Ambassador to Belgium Joshua Kalinoe will take over the position for the 79-member ACP group of states.
The committee of ambassadors is the third highest decision-making body in the ACP, behind the Council of Ministers and the Leader’s Summit.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is the current chairman of the Summit. He will hand over the chairmanship to another head of state when the summit meets later this year.
Papua New Guinea hosted the Leaders’ Summit in Port Moresby in 2016 under the chairmanship of O’Neill.
The Port Moresby Declaration and the Waigani Communique that transpired from the Port Moresby Leader’s Summit, among other policy outcomes, provided the basis for the ACP Group’s negotiation with European Union and to reshape the ACP as an important player on international affairs, including at the United Nations and World Trade Organisation. Both the EU and ACP have agreed to enter into a new cooperation agreement when the current Cotonou Agreement expires in early 2020.
The first round of the negotiations was completed in December last year, with an agreement reached on the structure of the new agreement.