Vanuatu has become the sponsor state to support West Papua's move to gain independence from the Indonesian government.
The Pacific Island state's parliament has resolved to sponsor a resolution at the 2010 Melanesian Spearhead Group's Leaders Summit that the independence movement in West Papua be given Observer Status at the MSG.
The motion was made on June 19 whereby, Vanuatu has agreed to sponsor a resolution that the Pacific Islands Forum and the United Nations do the same.
Vanuatu has agreed as part of the new bill to create a new desk in the foreign affairs office for West Papua, back West Papua as a self-governing nation and ratify UN conventions on refuge in regards to West Papua.
West Papua was created from the western portion of Papua province in February 2003, initially under the name of Irian Jaya Barat; it was renamed Papua Barat (West Papua) on 7 February 2007.
In November 2004, an Indonesian court agreed that the split violated Papua's autonomy laws. However, the court ruled that because the new province had already been created, it should remain separate from Papua. The ruling also prohibited the creation of another proposed province, Central Irian Jaya, as that division had not yet been formalised. The split is in line with the general trend of provincial splits that is occurring in all parts of Indonesia in the post-Suharto era.
The new province has so far been widely supported by the province's inhabitants, as the new entity created more jobs and more government subsidied flowing into the province.
West Papua is the common English name for the western half of the island of New Guinea, the eastern half being Papua New Guinea. Within Indonesia, of which it is the easternmost part, it is colloquially known as Papua.
The incorporation of the region into Indonesia remains controversial with many of the territory's indigenous population, the Free Papua Movement, human rights NGOs, and International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP), whose members include parliamentarians from Britain, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Australia and Vanuatu, United States, Sweden and the Netherlands.
It was first under Dutch control until 1951 and came under Indonesian control in 1963.