RI, PNG to settle border issues

BATAM: Delegates from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) are expected to conclude a three-day meeting on border issues in Batam on Saturday.

Indonesia’s representative, Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, said among the issues discussed during the meeting were the reopening of border gates between the two countries, which have been closed for the last few years.

Other problems included determining citizenship for 300 families that resulted from mixed marriages between PNG citizens and Indonesian Papuans, reactivating communication and information cooperation between the countries, the establishment of a border investment and trade commission and the mapping of diseases in border areas, he said.— JP