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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Guardian reporter in Port Moresby

Pacific pulling power: western leaders rush to region in effort to counter China

Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea James Marape  and France's President Emmanuel Macron in Varirata national park forest in Port Moresby
Emmanuel Macron became the first French president to visit in Papua New Guinea this week. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, took off his suit jacket and tie on Friday and wandered through more than a mile of the wild forests of Papua New Guinea, accompanied by the country’s prime minister, James Marape. The leaders’ walk through the lush Varirata national park was underlined by the signing of a new environmental initiative – backed by French and EU financing – that will reward countries that preserve their rainforests.

At the final stop on their forest walk, they both came to a panorama of partially forested hills stretching into the distance, newly named in the VIP visitor’s honour: “Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frederic Macron Lookout”.

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