By MICHELLE AUAMOROMORO
PAPUA New Guinea’s foreign policy of ‘friends to all and enemies to none’ remains, says Prime Minster James Marape.
Marape said this in his statement during the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting in Suva, Fiji last week.
He said this in relation to the current geo-politics in the region where the bigger forces are at play.
“With no good reasons, someone else’s enemy is not my enemy.
“And our Pacific ways must pacify all forces and interests in our region,” he said.
Marape said in this day and age, foreign relationships were not just historical or philosophical but were more to do with trade and commerce for national economies.
“There is a need for greater trade and commerce not just among ourselves with PIF but outside our region too, hence, the need to sustain our economies is very much a reality,” he said.
Marape used Nauru’s experience as an example.
“It (Nauru) was once very rich from phosphate with one of the highest GDP per capita in the world, however, this is so different today.
“That should not be the case in Pacific, a region of abundance in maritime and land resources.
“We, in the Pacific, must use this unity of nations to push for our collective economic well-being to develop and sustain our countries,” he said.
Marape said PNG did not want to compromise relationships with its fellow APEC member countries because those trade relationships kept the country’s economy functional.
“The Pacific is and must be a friendly region to all, especially those that sincerely respect our national and Pacific interests,” he said.
PIF Secretary-General, in response to this approach (friends to all and enemies to none) said that while the approach was good, there were certain issues that had regional impacts and needed the leaders to dialogue with each other.
“That (friends to all and enemies to none) is the best approach for us, because we can’t afford to be enemies with anybody.
“And there are opportunities to be had and there are advantages in having relationships with everybody, and that is acknowledged; there’s no problem with that.
“However, leaders also acknowledge that there are certain issues that have impacts beyond national borders and it is those issues that leaders are asking each member country to share with others; when they decide to enter into arrangements that are exclusively within the national sovereignty.
“It is on those issues that leaders have asked each other to share and to dialogue with each other so that everybody knows what is happening and what might be impacting federal and national borders,” he said.
