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
Australia–Papua New Guinea relations Australia–Papua New Guinea relations Australia–Papua New Guinea relations are the foreign relations between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is Australia's closest neighbour (with roughly 6 km separating the two countries at the nearest point, and with both nations sharing the same continent), and a former dependent territory of Australia. Papua New Guinea has developed much closer relations with Australia than with Indonesia, the only country with which it shares a land border. The two countries are Commonwealth realms, and Papua New Guinea benefits from economic development aid from Australia. The southern half of eastern New Guinea (the