Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (PNG; , ; ; ), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an Oceanian country that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. At the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea established its sovereignty in 1975. This followed nearly 60
History of Papua New Guinea in the islands led to the rioting. The Chinese have long been merchants in Papua New Guinea. On the same year, Papua New Guinea asked various Southeast nations for their support for Papua New Guinea's full membership bid in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Indonesia supported the bid after Papua New Guinea supported Indonesia's hold on West Papua. However, Christian-majority Philippines and Buddhist-majority Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia have expressed displeasure over Papua New Guinea's anti-LGBT laws, stating that equality-friendly Timor-Leste would most likely be a more feasible ASEAN member state in the future. From February to March 2018, a