On October 10, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer met with Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso of Papua New Guinea in Washington, DC. They discussed the deepening cooperation between the United States and Papua New Guinea as exemplified by the establishment of the inaugural U.S.-PNG Strategic Partnership Dialogue. Mr. Finer noted the status of new and ongoing projects being undertaken by the United States in cooperation with Papua New Guinea, including building a humanitarian assistance/disaster relief warehouse in Lae, connecting 19,000 Papua New Guinean households to electricity over the last three months under the Papua New Guinea Electrification Partnership, the $26 million flagship Peace Project under the U.S Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability, and U.S. assistance to the Government of Papua New Guinea in resolving the ongoing fuel crisis.
Mr. Finer and Mr. Rosso reaffirmed the value and opportunities generated by our deepening partnership and discussed areas of potential future collaboration in education, people-to-people ties, resource conservation, access to banking services, and defense, especially where enabled by the U.S.-PNG Defense Cooperation Agreement. They agreed to be in touch over the coming weeks to continue the progress of the maturing relationship.
