PIF Contact Group on Fiji to meet in NZ

Forum Ministerial Contact Group on Fiji to meet in NZ

In a continuation of the Pacific Islands Forum’s efforts to engage with Fiji authorities, the Forum’s Ministerial Contact Group (MCG) will meet in Auckland, New Zealand on 31 May 2010, in accordance with the Forum Leaders’ mandate for the Group to monitor and report on the situation in Fiji.

The MCG is a grouping of Forum member state Foreign Ministers. It comprises the Prime Ministers of Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu – in their respective capacities as Foreign Minister of their country - and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon. Feleti V. Sevele, is Chair of the Group. The Tuvalu Prime Minister will be represented by his Minister for Home Affairs and Rural Development.

The Government of Fiji has also been invited by the MCG Chair, with the concurrence of other Ministers, to send a Ministerial representative to provide perspectives on Fiji’s situation and the path back to democratic governance.

At their 40th Meeting in Cairns last August, in reaffirming their January 2009 Port Moresby Retreat decisions on Fiji’s suspension from the Forum, Leaders tasked the MCG to continue to monitor developments in Fiji and directed it to report back to Leaders by the time of the 2010 Forum meeting.

Following the Auckland meeting, the MCG Chair will provide a report to the Pacific Islands Forum Chair for consideration by Leaders at the 2010 Forum Meeting to be held in Port Vila, Vanuatu from 3-6 August 2010.

The Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, expressed gratitude to the Government of New Zealand for hosting this meeting of the MCG.

ENDS

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