"As neighboring countries and close friends, it is natural for Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to have close relations," Minister Retno said, in a press statement from her office received here on Thursday.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 21.
During their meeting, they had discussed various cooperation opportunities and agreed to increase coordination in working together on issues of common concern, especially in the context of regional organizations such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and the Pacific Island Forum (PIF).
Further, PNG hoped Indonesia would continue supporting various activities for increasing the capacity of the MSG, especially in the capacity of MSG Secretariat.
"Indonesia, as a big country in the region, has always been ready to contribute to advance peace, stability and prosperity in the region," Retno said.
In connection with various tyes of bilateral cooperation, the two ministers agreed to continue developing the management and development of cities in the Indonesia-PNG border region.
The two ministers praised the discussion for cooperation in border management through the Border Liaison Meeting (BLM), Joint Border Committee (JBC) and various meetings in the Joint Sub-Committee to be held in Port Moresby on November 7-19, 2016.
"The establishment of a language school that will provide Indonesian language lesson will help increase mutual understanding and deepen people-to-people contacts," minister Retno said.
Papua New Guinea has been one of the countries that has routinely been part of the technical cooperation and capacity building programs provided by Indonesia.
The technical cooperation that has been carried out includes "batik" painting, food production development, protocol and event management, multimedia, handicrafts, tourism, automotive, peat forest development and coastal restoration.
From 1999 to August 2016, 276 people from PNG have taken part in 105 capacity development programs provided by Indonesia.
"This program is part of Indonesias US$20 million commitment for capacity building for Pacific countries from 2014-2019", minister Retno said.
At the meeting, Retno also conveyed Indonesias plan to bid for non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council for 2018-2919, and she said she hoped PNG would offer its support.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
