Monday 26 September 2022
Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has accepted an invitation from the Prime Minister of Israel Hon. Yair Lapid to visit Israel, while PM Marape reciprocated this with a return invitation to the Israeli leader to visit Papua New Guinea.
The exchanges happened soon after both leaders presented their respective country’s statements at the 77th United Nations General Assembly on Thursday 22nd September 2022 (New York Time).
In a brief meeting on the sidelines of UNGA, both leaders spoke of and agreed for Papua New Guinea and Israel to step up on current diplomatic relations and how both countries would work together.
Prime Minister Marape is very keen on getting Israel’s high-skilled assistance in agriculture to help PNG in the new focus on agriculture that was recently announced.
He saidm “Papua New Guinea can learn a lot from Israel: their internal security, their technology-based agriculture industry that makes them food sufficient as well as exporters of fruits and vegetables to Europe and the world.
“I want Papua New Guinea to learn from Israel on how they shifted their resources and focus on investment into knowledge-based economy.
“At the meeting, I mentioned that PNG, under my watch, will be a supporter of Israel and that PNG and Israel share common Judea-Christianity history and worldview”, PM Marape said.
The leaders agreed to step up on the 44-year-old diplomatic relation with renewed focus on agriculture innovations and knowledge-based economic development.
Papua New Guinea and Israel established bi-lateral relations in 1978, three years after Papua New Guinea gained Independence.