SYDNEY: Papua New Guinea will open an embassy in Jerusalem during Prime Minister James Marape’s visit next week, a spokesman for his office said on Monday.
“Yes, that’s true,” a spokesman for Marape’s office said when asked if the country was ready to open embassy and that Marape would visit Israel next week.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in February that Papua New Guinea would open its first embassy in the country sometime in 2023.
Israeli media including ‘Channel 14’ and ‘Times of Israel’ reported that the embassy inauguration would take place on September 5.
The vast 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 currently based in Jerusalem.
Israel annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem after its capture in the 1967 Middle East War and considers the city its “eternal and indivisible” capital, but this is not recognized internationally.
The Palestinians want to have the capital of a possible Palestinian state there.
