High Commissioner Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri holds productive meeting with PNG premier
Canberra: Pakistani High Commissioner to Australia Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri this week had a very productive meeting with the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea James Marape.
“Honoured to have a very productive meeting with the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Honourable James Marape,” the envoy posted on X.
He added: “(We) agreed to enhance Pakistan-PNG cooperation, particularly in the areas of health, education, IT, human resource development, and trade & investment.”
Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia – a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia.
It shares its only land border with Indonesia to the west and its other close neighbors are Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital, located on its southern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world’s third largest island country, with an area of 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi).
Split in the 1880’s between German New Guinea in the North and the British Territory of Papua in the South, all of present-day Papua New Guinea came under Australian control following World War I, with the legally distinct Territory of New Guinea being established out of the former German colony as a League of Nations mandate.
The nation was the site of fierce fighting during the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Papua New Guinea became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1975 with Elizabeth II as its Queen. Since Elizabeth II’s death in 2022, Charles III has been the King.
There are 840 known languages of Papua New Guinea including English, making it the most linguistically diverse country in the world.
It is also one of the most rural countries, with only 13.25% of its population living in urban centres. Most of its people live in customary communities.
Although government estimates reported the country’s population to be 9.4 million, it was reported in December 2022 that its population was in fact closer to 17 million.
