Pernyataan Pers Bersama Presiden RI dan Perdana Menteri Papua Nugini, di Istana Kepresidenan Bogor, Provinsi Jawa Barat, 31 Maret 2022

Presiden Republik Indonesia (Joko Widodo)
Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Merupakan kehormatan bagi saya menerima kunjungan Perdana Menteri James Marape beserta delegasi (ke) Indonesia. Saya bersyukur, di tengah pandemi kita terus bekerja untuk memperkokoh kerja sama bilateral kedua negara, dan saya menghargai konsistensi sikap PNG (Papua New Guinea) dan Perdana Menteri Marape dalam menghormati kedaulatan dan integritas wilayah Indonesia. Prinsip ini penting untuk terus dihormati dan dilaksanakan oleh semua negara secara konsisten.

Pertemuan saya dengan Perdana Menteri Marape telah berlangsung dalam suasana yang bersahabat dan produktif. Kami membahas upaya penguatan kerja sama bilateral di berbagai bidang dan saling tukar menukar pandangan mengenai kerja sama di Pasifik.

Beberapa hal yang dibahas dalam pertemuan antara lain, kami, yang pertama, kami menyambut baik peningkatan perdagangan kedua negara di tahun 2021 yang naik sebesar 87 persen dibandingkan tahun sebelumnya atau lebih tinggi dari nilai perdagangan sebelum pandemi. Hal ini memberikan harapan dan optimisme terhadap pemulihan ekonomi pascapandemi, dan saya percaya masih banyak peluang yang dapat ditingkatkan. Untuk itu, Indonesia juga siap membuka kembali perbatasan dengan Papua Nugini untuk memulihkan perdagangan lintas batas dan denyut ekonomi masyarakat yang tinggal di daerah perbatasan. Masih terkait bidang perdagangan dan investasi, saya juga menyambut baik peluncuran studi kelayakan untuk pembentukan perjanjian perdagangan preferensial antara Indonesia dan Papua Nugini.

Saya juga berpandangan pentingnya pembentukan perjanjian investasi bilateral untuk memfasilitasi dan memberikan keamanan bagi investor kedua negara. Dalam kaitan ini, saya menugaskan Menteri BUMN, Menteri PUPR, Menteri ESDM, dan Menteri Perdagangan bersama-sama dengan delegasi KADIN dan pengusaha Indonesia untuk melakukan misi perdagangan dan investasi di PNG dalam waktu dekat.

Yang kedua, kami juga bertukar pandangan mengenai pentingnya memperkuat konektivitas di antara kedua negara baik di darat, di laut, maupun di udara. Dan juga, saya berharap akan terbuka peluang bagi perusahaan-perusahaan konstruksi Indonesia untuk membangun sarana konektivitas dan infrastruktur di Papua Nugini.

Ketiga, di bidang pertahanan. Saya berharap implementasi perjanjian kerja sama di bidang pertahanan akan semakin membuka kesempatan bagi kerja sama militer antara kedua negara. Hal ini termasuk potensi kerja sama mencakup industri pertahanan Indonesia.

Yang keempat, mengenai kerja sama kesehatan Indonesia dan Papua Nugini. Saya menyampaikan, Indonesia siap mendukung upaya Papua Nugini untuk memperkuat ketahanan nasionalnya di bidang kesehatan, melalui kemitraan antara otoritas obat dan makanan kedua negara. Juga, perusahaan farmasi Indonesia juga menunjukkan minat untuk masuk memasarkan produknya di pasar Papua Nugini.

Yang kelima, kami juga membahas sinergi kedua negara untuk meningkatkan kerja sama dengan negara-negara Pasifik Selatan, termasuk bidang pembangunan berkelanjutan, perubahan iklim, energi terbarukan, kelautan, manajemen penanggulangan bencana yang menjadi tantangan negara-negara kepulauan di Pasifik. Perhatian Indonesia terhadap negara Pasifik, antara lain juga diwujudkan dengan diundangnya perwakilan Pasifik PIF (Pacific Island Forum) dalam KTT G20.

Sekali lagi, terima kasih Perdana Menteri Marape atas pertemuan yang konstruktif ini, dan saya mengundang Yang Mulia untuk menyampaikan pandangannya.

Perdana Menteri Papua Nugini (James Marape)
Thank you very much, His Excellency President Widodo.

Let me say thank you again to trough this public press, to yourself, your good wife, as well as your cabinet, your ministers, your government for accepting me and Rachel and my ministers and my delegations at short notice to come to visit you in your lovely country and in your capital, Jakarta, as well as in your palace here.

Some relationships as we said inside, you have not chosen those relationships, it exists by the design of God. For us, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia is a relationship that we cannot ignore because we are here to stay. We are not just friends but more importantly brothers and sisters, our nation has been together since time immemorial And Papua New Guinea, Mr President, is always in to Indonesia to give respect to our friendship, our brotherhood, and our relationship.

We have always had a good relationship since 1976 when our two nations established formally our bilateral relationships. I just want to say thank you very much again, it is to for accepting us to come, to pay courtesy call, pay due respect, and give recognition ways to especially the context of what Indonesia has been to us in the last 46 years. We have been an independent nation.

You stood with us on many fronts. From the wide goal when we became important bilateral partners formally in 1976. You were responsible for our admission into the APEC family, you have always been there for us in some of our moments when we have struggled as a nation, in our own Bougainville crisis days, in our financial stressful days, and lately in our COVID-19 crisis. The helping hand from Indonesia did come to Papua New Guinea.

And in that respect, Papua New Guinean government, Papua New Guinean leaders, Papua New Guinean business houses, and Papua New Guinean public servants forever will relate to Indonesia as we have been in the past, today, and we will into the future.

Mr. President,
my delegation here has been totally given the respect and we feel it that it is also ideal for us to send an invitation to you and the government of Indonesia to visit Port Moresby next year so that we have these annual meetings that exchanges between our two nations as intended for in 2013 when Indonesia’s then President and Papua New Guinea’s then Prime Minister made that understanding in the comprehensive partnership agreement understanding in 2013.

Unfortunately, seven years have gone by without those acknowledged changes and I am happy that yourself and your leadership, you see the importance of that reconnection with Papua New Guinea at the government-to-government level but as with it may mention today and for the media, it is just not myself and the President, government to government, we brought ministers who have connected with ministers. We are bringing our private sectors. We are connecting with the private sector.

In fact I will be addressing, Mr. President, the Jakarta and the Indonesian council of business later today, and so it is those special contexts that are important for our two Nations to coexist and support one another going forward into the future.

For the Papua New Guinean media and for Papua New Guinea, Indonesia is a big country. It’s a trillion dollar economy.  They are in G20. In fact, this year we wish you all the very best in your hosting of G20 this year. We thank you for inviting the Pacific Island Forum members to be at the margins and be involved in the G20 meeting later this year. But your presence in G20 for Papua New Guinea and the media is an indication that Indonesia is a big economy. It’s a sleeping giant in as far as Papuan Guinea tapping into potentials Indonesia already has in what you could offer to our own small economy to grow.

And Mr. President, I just want to conclude by saying that our comprehensive partnership as two nations is now entrenched in this meeting that we’ve had and on a personal level, our meeting went very well, but at the government-to-government level, our bilateral went very well and we look forward to our officials on both sides working those agreements. Different cooperation agreements will be finalised at the very earliest.

And our economic cooperation agreements, border agreements. We want to increase more exchanges, especially at the commercial level, at the business level, not just at the border exchanges, but in greater and deeper into Indonesia, as well as Indonesia deeper into Western Papua New Guinea.

For so long we’ve just focused on border issues. This discussion between the President and myself has now elevated discussion outside of the border issues and more into trade, commerce, economy, public service exchanges, health services and education services exchanges.

I think, Mr. President, it was a timely meeting between us, representing our two people, and our two countries, and our two governments.

And I look forward to our meeting in Port Moresby next year when you come and we will see how much we progress and strengthen our relationships for the better going forward into the future.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.