RI, PNG DISCUSS MANAGEMENT OF COMMON BORDER AREAS

Port Moresby, Nov 6 (ANTARA)- Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) held the 26th meeting of their Joint Border Committee in Port Moresby on Thursday to discuss management of their border areas to improve the local people's social welfare.

The Indonesian delegation to the meeting was led by Home Affairs Minister Mardiyanto while the PNG was represented by a team also headed by its home affairs minister, Job Pomat.

Edi Pratomo, the Indonesian foreign affairs ministry's director general for legal and international agreements, said one of the meeting's topics was the opening of border posts in the Skow-Wutung area.
Also discussed were the repatriation of around 708 Indonesian nationals currently living in 10 regions in PNG, and the joint provision of education and health services in Wara Smol and Marantikin Papua.
Bilateral relations between the two countries had developed positively since they signed a treaty on mutual respect, friendship and cooperation in 1986 and a basic border agreement on April 11, 1990, Pratomo said.

One of the problems the two countries were now facing in areas along their common border was trading in illegal drugs, including opium.