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Papua issue looms again
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has completed her one-week tour of four pacific nations, including three members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), which has just received another membership application from a Papuan resistance group
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oreign Minister Retno Marsudi has completed her one-week tour of four pacific nations, including three members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), which has just received another membership application from a Papuan resistance group.
Retno arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday after concluding her diplomatic trip in New Zealand. Previously, she visited and met with the foreign ministers of three MSG member states, namely Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Fiji.
The MSG is said to be gearing up to discuss the United Liberation Movement of West Papua's (ULMWP) full-membership application, which was submitted to the MSG's headquarters in Port Vila, Vanuatu, last month.
The ULMWP was formed by three West Papuan groups, namely the Federal Republic of West Papua, the West Papua National Parliament and the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL), after an MSG Leader Summit in Port Moresby rejected the WPNCL's membership application last year.
But official statements from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry did not indicate any relationship between Retno's visits and ULMWP's bid to become MSG's sixth full member, claiming that Retno and her counterparts had only discussed 'Indonesia's commitment to the US$20 million capacity-building program for MSG countries'.
Foreign ministers Rimbink Pato of Papua New Guinea, Milner Tozaka of the Solomon Islands and Ratu Inoke Kubuabola of Fiji agreed that 'as part of Indonesia's greater engagement in MSG, the ministers will intensify communication on issues relating to MSG'. The ministers will also 'promote regular consultations, contacts and exchange of visits among Indonesia and MSG members', according to the statement.
Tozaka also extended an invitation for Retno to attend the MSG meeting as an observer in July in the Solomon Islands.
In December last year, ULMWP set up an office in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, which frequently criticizes alleged human rights abuses in West Papua and Papua provinces.
Vanuatu also refused to take part in a mission of high-ranking representatives of MSG nations to visit Jakarta, Maluku and Papua in January last year. Indonesia's invitation succeeded in wooing the other MSG representatives, who recognized the latest developments by the Indonesian government in the country's most remote and underprivileged provinces of Papua and West Papua.
In New Zealand, Retno and her counterpart Murray McCully agreed to enhance the two countries' relationship in sectors including agriculture, trade, investment and defense.
