Papua New Guinea’s only Foreign Policy White Paper, titled, “Active and Selective Engagement” was written in 1982. Since then, there have been a number of reviews, and parliamentary statements by the respective Ministers for Foreign Affairs (and Trade), lacking the energy, and the will, to go the extra mile to produce, from these reviews, and parliamentary statements, a Foreign Policy White Paper, and further, to operationalize it, using Project Management tools, techniques, and processes.

So, what is a Foreign Policy? For the laymen, it is a National Government’s combine strategies, or general objectives, to effectively manage its international relations with other countries, either bilaterally, or multilaterally. It also affects domestic policies due to the intricacies of globalization. Its main objective is to use diplomacy – talking, meeting, negotiating, and making agreements – to solve international problems, and to keep those problems from developing into conflicts that may require military settlements. In many countries today, this role is usually the primary responsibility of the President, or the Prime Minister.

The Onset of COVID-19, and the ensuing Pandemic, has given us no choice, but to convert all the reviews we currently have on the drawing board, into a Foreign Policy White paper to guide PNG through the quagmire of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, while domesticating the outcomes of these engagements, throughout PNG, using project management tool, techniques and process.