PNG to host Pacific meet

 PAPUA New Guinea will host the Pacific Islands conference of leaders next year which Prime Minister Peter O’Neill chairs.

O’Neill yesterday met the president of the East-West Centre based in Hawaii, Dr Charles Morrison, in Port Moresby to discuss the leaders meeting in 2014.

He was elected chairman in 2011 during his meetings with former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and President Barrack Obama, which occurred concurrently with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in Honolulu.

“During the 2012 Pacific Islands Forum in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, I indicated our interest in hosting the 2014 PICL meeting in Papua New Guinea,” O’Neill said.

He said PNG would be honoured to host such a significant occasion, as it did during the Pacific African Caribbean Pacific (Pacific ACP) meeting held in November last year.

Morrison has been the centre’s president since Aug 1, 1998. 

The centre is located in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is an independent, public, non-profit organisation which operates with funding from the US government and additional support from private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and governments in the region.