The Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says Indonesia wants to intensify its involvement with Pacific nations through the Pacific Islands Development Forum.

The president was the keynote speaker at the second gathering of the Pacific Islands Forum held in Nadi this week.

Fiji’s prime minister Frank Bainimarama said the Indonesian president was uniquely qualified to steer discussions at the forum, which was set up by Fiji as an alternative to the Pacific Islands Forum from which Fiji is suspended.

President Yudhoyono says the PIDF’s efforts to achieve a sustainable Pacific society are similar to his approach to development.

He told the forum participants Indonesia’s priority was to conserve and enhance fisheries and marine resources and link up over marine protected areas.

He also said Indonesia would commit US$20 million over the next five years to Pacific Island countries to deal with challenges like disasters and climate change.

The president says Indonesia wants to triple trade with the PIDF countries to a billion dollars over the coming years.

On the diplomatic front, President Yudhoyono says Indoneisa wanted to capitalise on its links with PIDF countries.

He says it is in Indonesia’s best interests to act as a bridge between the countries of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and Indonesia supports Papua New Guinea as host and chair of APEC in 2018.

The president said a new cold war in the Northern Hemisphere was a potential reality and he said Indonesia would continue to support the role of small, developing countries in helping maintain international peace and security.

Fiji has also announced that Indonesia will co-lead a multi-national group of observers which will monitor Fiji’s general election in September.

Bainimarama thanked the president for offering to participate in what he describes as an “historic initiative in embarking on genuine democracy”.

He praised Indonesia as the region’s most influential country on the world stage and said President Yudhoyono had made a singular achievement in presiding over the development of genuine democracy in Indonesia.

However, Pacific civil society groups have questioned the attendance of Indonesia’s president at the Pacific Islands Development Forum.

The group’s spokesman, Reverend Francois Pihaatae of the Pacific Conference of Churches, says regional governments must not let President Yudhoyono’s presence at the forum cloud their judgment on the issue of self-determination in West Papua.

He says the forum deserves applause for the recognition it has received but other questions must be asked particularly over self-determination for Pacific people.

The churchman also questioned whether the Indonesian president had made the visit out of necessity because support for West Papuan independence had reached such a critical level within Fiji, the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the wider region.

The Pacific Islands Development Forum is a Fiji initiative bringing together NGOs, governments and business to discuss sustainable development in the Pacific region.

The PIDF says it is open to all Pacific island countries irrespective of their political status whether independent states or dependant territories.

Attending this week’s forum in Nadi were the presidents of Kiribati and Nauru, the vice presidents of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands and the prime minister of Tonga.