Independent State of Papua New Guinea

The Independent State of Papua New Guinea is an archipelago located in the South Pacific, north of Australia, with a population of around 7 million people. The main island is shared with the Indonesian province of West Papua. The country is a parliamentary monarchy. Since it is a member of the Commonwealth, the chief of State is the British Queen.

The territory of present-day Papua New Guinea was administered by Germans (in the northeast, from 1884 to 1914), British (in the south, from 1884 to 1945), Japanese (in the north, from 1941 to 1945) and Australians (from 1945 to 1975). It became independent in 1975.

The archipelago’s main economic sector is the exploitation (and export) of natural resources, particularly of copper, gold and oil. Subsistence agriculture plays a significant role (in 2021, 87 percent of the pupulation lived in rural areas).

The country is a member of the 1982 Nauru Agreement, which aims to promote the coordination and harmonization of tuna fishery management in the eight member countries. The issue is of great relevance to Pacific island countries, which depend to a greater or lesser extent on revenues from fishing licenses for foreign vessels to fund the government. In the case of Papua New Guinea, 4.9 percent of government revenues in 2016 came from such licenses.

Brazil and Papua New Guinea established diplomatic relations in 1989.The Brazilian Embassy in Camberra is responsible for overseeing, cumulatively, the relations with Papua New Guinea.  Bilateral agreements have not yet been signed.

Trade between Brazil and Papua New Guinea  is modest and is composed almost entirely of Brazilian exports. In 2013, bilateral trade reached $7 million. In 2021, Brazil exported nearly $3 million (mainly electric generators and  agricultural tools and machinery) and imported $72,000 from that country (vanilla).

Chronology of bilateral relations

2005 – Brazilian official mission to Papua New Guinea  

1989 – Establishment of diplomatic relations