World Country Papua New Guinea

About the world country Papa New Guinea, its location, size, population, and who is in power.

NATIONS OF THE WORLD

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Location: Eastern half of East Indies island of New Guinea, plus smaller islands off the main island's east coast, directly north of Queensland, Australia. Size: 178,259 sq. mi. (461,691 sq. km.). Population: 3,294,000.

Who Really Rules: Papua New Guinea's elected parliament is a mixture of vaguely defined political parties, some of which identify with one or more of the nation's 700 ethnic or tribal groups. Though a foreign consortium operates a huge copper mine on the eastern island of Bougainville, the various coalition governments have preferred to offer incentives to domestic business interests rather than open the country's doors to widespread foreign investment.

Australia, the former colonial administrator of the country, provides military aid and training plus a huge share of the national budget. Though physically part of Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea's Melanesian and Papuan racial makeup have oriented it towards the Pacific. In 1980 Papua New Guinea sent troops to Vanuatu to put down a secessionist rebellion.