Foreign Minister Hon. Justin Tkatchenko met with New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Carmel Sepuloni this morning prior to attending the Special Leaders’Retreat where he offered PNG’s support to New Zealand following the extreme disaster caused by cyclone Gabrielle.
We will send our PNGDF to support New Zealand with clean up exercises if required, said Minister Tkatchenko.
Deputy Prime Minister Sepuloni was thrilled to hear of PNG’s offer of support, saying New Zealand is used to offer support to other Pacific Island Countries in times of need and to receive that in return is indeed overwhelming. She said New Zealand has taken up the offer of support by Fiji and are currently assessing where further support is needed, for New Zealand to respond to PNG’s offer.
Minister Tkatchenko further informed of PNG’s keen interest to increase its numbers in the labour mobility program that New Zealand offers. Minister Tkatchenko said, we note Samoa’s concern of skilled shortages it experienced which resulted in it suspending it’s participation in the programme at the moment, however, for PNG we have a lot of semi-skilled youth population that we want to utilised under this programme. Following my discussions with the RSE stakeholders in Auckland last week, PNG will offer 1000 workers to help New Zealand with your labour shortage at the moment.
Both Ministers acknowledged the shared interest in reviving the Foreign Service Training (FST) Programme which the Department of Foreign Affairs have greatly benefited from.This is to build the capacity and professionalism of diplomatic tradecraft as the Department undergoes it’s restructure this year.
Minister Tkatchenko further informed Deputy Prime Minister Sepuloni on the security arrangements that PNG is currently entering into with its transitional partners and their allies Australia, United States, Solomon Islands, France and Indonesia which are geared towards achieving the government’s priorities of a secure and economic resilient nation.
