Papua New Guinea is opening an embassy in Jerusalem – a decision long sought by pro-Israel church groups in the deeply Christian Pacific nation – as Prime Minister James Marape seeks to boost foreign investment.
Marape has pledged to voters to make Papua New Guinea (PNG), a resource-rich but largely undeveloped nation north of Australia, the “richest black Christian nation”.
He previously told parliament Israel was important because of its agriculture technology however, church groups have long lobbied for a Jerusalem embassy.
In a speech on PNG’s national holiday for prayer on August 26, Marape said he would travel to Israel for the embassy opening on Tuesday and that a law would be introduced to officially declare PNG a Christian country.
A delegation of pastors is travelling to Israel for the opening, PNG government and church officials said.
“We have to have the relationship with Israel,” Pastor Peter Harut, PNG delegate for International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, a Christian Zionist group, said in a telephone interview.
“This is what the people have been dreaming of.”
The majority of countries with an official diplomatic presence in Israel have their embassies in Tel Aviv, with only the United States, Kosovo, Guatemala and Honduras basing theirs in Jerusalem.
Read the article by Kirsty Needham and Dan Williams in The Canberra Times.