Prime Minister, James Marape says he wants to set the record straight on his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo regarding the West Papua Issue.

Marape claims an earlier statement regarding PNG’s position to abstain from supporting West Papua United Liberation Movement (WPULM) for a full fleged membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) was released without consent.

In an effort to rectify the misinformation and alleviate concerns raised within the MSG, Marape released another statement to address the inaccuracies.

“An earlier statement released without consent wrongfully said that at the recently-concluded MSG Leaders’ Summit in Port Vila, Vanuatu, I informed leaders of PNG’s abstaining from supporting the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) bid for full membership, plus a notation that human rights issues in West Papua are of no concern to PNG. I wish to clarify these misconstrued assertions.” said Marape.

Marape corrects that, “Papua New Guinea never abstained from West Papua matters at the MSG meeting, but rather, offered solutions that affirmed,” said Marape.

Marape made these comments during the bilateral meeting with President Widodo in Jakarta and stressed the respect PNG government has towards Indonesia’s sovereignty, territorial rights but Human Rights is a different issue.

“When matters concerning ULMWP’s application for membership was raised, I indicated that the presence of Indonesia on MSG as an Associate Member and ULMWP as observer is sufficient for the moment. MSG has placed a moratorium on new membership until the criteria for membership is reviewed,” Marape said

Marape said President Widodo has assured him that all is okay in the two Papuan provinces and invited senior government members to visit it’s Papua Province..”