In a close bilateral meeting, Prime Minster James marape sincerely welcomed and expressed appreciation to President Widodo for this reciprocal visit. He said, Indonesia is our closest neighbor and strategic partner since 1975 and that his presence in PNG was an honor and timely in that it strengthened our relationship. President Widodo acknowledged and thanked Prime Minister Marape for the warm welcome remarks and affirmed Indonesian Government’s commitment to improve cooperation with PNG. During the bilatera he announced the Grant Assistance of K60Million to Papua New Guinea for two major projects which included; K55Million for feasibility study for Port Moresby General Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the redevelopment of the Mortuary to commence this year; and K5Million for the West Sepik Integrated Development Project to be implemented next year and will focus on; the construction of the Wutung Primary School, construction of a fire station in Vanimo and re-development of a waste Management system in Vanimo. He also highlighted that a number of activities at the border which included; opening of the PNG Express sailing route, the opening of Denpasar-Port Moresby flying route, the Ratification of the Basic Border Agreement the reopening of the Skouw-Wutung crossing post. Additionally, he emphasized the need to strengthen economic cooperation with PNG and other Pacific Island Countries and also mentioned that since the re-opening of the PNG-Indonesian Border last year, our trade statistics have increased to US$307Million and urged the need to further strengthen our cooperation at the Border through the conclusion of a Joint Feasibility Study on the PNG-Indonesia Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). He also mentioned that the opening of flights from Denpasar to Port Moresby under the Air Services Agreement will boost our business to business and people-to-people connections not only for PNG but for the Indo-Pacific. The inaugural flight took place on Sunday 02nd July 2023. Further to this, he announced the establishment of the PNG-Indonesia Business Council and maintained that partnership in this space will greatly enhance our business, trade and investment endeavors including our Governments “Connect PNG Program”. Aside from these, other announcements noted included: Ratification of the Mutual Visa Waiver Exemption for Diplomatic and Official Passport Holders; Ratification and review of the Basic Border Agreement (BBA); Signing of the MoU on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters; and Signing of the MoU on Combating Transnational Crime. In noting these commitments, he further proposed for both sides to draw up a development cooperation roadmap for the next 5years. For Indo-Pacific cooperation, President Widodo affirmed his commitment to increase Indonesia and ASEAN’s engagement with the Pacific through inviting Pacific representatives to East Asia Summit and the maintenance of the ASEAN-Indo-Pacific Forum. Prime Minister Marape thanked President Widodo for the abovementioned commitments and reaffirmed PNG’s support on the same.