Australian PM to visit Papua New Guinea

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will visit Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG), from July 14 to 15, a prime minister's press release said Thursday. In Port Moresby, Rudd will meet his PNG counterpart Peter O' Neill to discuss priority bilateral interests, including joint work in policing and health. As PNG and Australia are both Pacific countries, the Prime Ministers will also discuss cooperation on shared regional challenges. This will be the second overseas trip by Rudd after he was sworn in as prime minister on June 27. "Papua New Guinea is Australia's nearest neighbour and one of our most important bilateral partners. Our unique relationship is based on shared history, extensive business links, the deep friendship between our two peoples and close government ties," the press release said. Bilateral trade and investment relationship is "vibrant and growing". Two-way trade stands at more than 7 billion AU dollars ( 6.37 billion U.S. dollars), growing by 2.2 percent in 2012. The level of Australian investment in PNG, including through participation in the landmark PNG LNG project, has grown five-fold in five years and today stands at 19 billion (17.3 billion U.S. dollars).