An approval for the ‘Ratification of the Reciprocal Visa Exemption Agreement’ between PNG and the People’s Republic of China as well as Indonesia and PNG was made on Monday, 13th of March, 2023.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Justin Tkatchenko, said this meant that all officials, members and hierarchy of China and Indonesia can come into PNG through Visa on arrival.
He stated that this is what China is doing for PNG and what Indonesia is already doing in Indonesia.
“So finally we’ve got these papers through that were sitting idle, the ‘Ratification for the Visas Agreement’ between China and PNG took five years, which is unacceptable this shows you how incompetent previous governments were to doing these things and with the ‘Reciprocal Visa Exemption Agreement’ between PNG and Indonesia it took eight years and that’s unacceptable,” stated Tkatchenko.
The Ministers stated that that there is no room for complacency in the department as there is more corporation, agreements, and many more treaties over the next coming months.
“What will happen is this will be taken to the floor of parliament and signed by the Governor General, so it will go through a process. But the most important part is that the National Executive Council, the decision making committee of this country has approved for ratification… We are also are working on the ratification for India and also for South Korea as we speak,” he added.