Temaru backs Fiji return

French Polynesia President Oscar Temaru says he will support Fiji’s return to the Pacific Islands Forum if its suspension is brought up by the Leaders.

“The Pacific Leaders are hopeful that in the very close future Fiji will be back again, because all countries in the Pacific are linked and no one should be expelled from this ocean,” he said.

He said the issue of Fiji being suspended from the Forum and other similar organisations was a problem that will not last forever and solutions will be found to get Fiji back in.

Speaking of a recent visit to Fiji, he said the process observed by Fiji to ensure a democratically elected government come 2014 was an excellent process, so he hoped the deadline will be respected through strong commitment from Fiji.

Similar feelings were earlier expressed by Pacific leaders in the Cook Islands this week.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Willie Telavi said, “Personally I do encourage Fiji to join our forum, I am glad to see the progress made by Fiji in progressing themselves to come to the 2014 elections and I congratulate Fiji for doing that.

“We would like to see Fiji coming back to the forum but we have to see what the outcome of the forum meeting is like in the next few days,” he said.

Similar feelings were also expressed by Vanuatu Deputy Prime Minister Ham Lini who said it was better to accept Fiji back to the Forum because its prolonged absence would cause problems for some Pacific countries.

However, he said Vanuatu would support Fiji’s move to have a constitutionally elected government by 2014 and Fiji had to commit to that date.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill also said although Fiji was wanted back in the Forum the onus was on Fiji to ensure a democratically elected government was in place by 2014.

He said the absence of Fiji among ACP Pacific Leaders was raised by Pacific ACP Leaders who also acknowledged Fiji’s position as a member of the Pacific ACP and agreed that was Fiji’s current status.

However the Leaders understood that the present Forum was organised by the PIF and so issues surrounding Fiji’s participation as a pacific ACP Leader could not be discussed to length. The leaders agreed to convene a special meeting later in the year to discuss issues surrounding Fiji’s return to the Pacific ACP leaders fold.

In support of this, the PNG government has volunteered to host the ACP meeting in Port Moresby when a date is set.

“ACP being a different organisation and because the Forum event had already established a position on Fiji’s case, we need to consider the specific request they did, that is why the Government of Papua New Guinea has offered to host that meeting for the heads of government and officials at a cost to Papua New Guinea.”

He pointed out that Fiji would not be invited to the meeting but the invitation would be extended to Fiji after the meeting was concluded.