SUVA (Pacnews) — Instead of adhering to the recommendations of the Forum Eminent Person’s Group, Fiji’s interim government is proposing the establishment of a Fiji/Forum Working Group as a means of engagement between Fiji and the Pacific Islands Forum.
A letter obtained by Pacnews stated that the “FFWG (will) be mandated and tasked by my government and the Forum to find the possibility for balanced and appropriate resolutions of the present differences between the expectations of the Forum and the aspirations of my government.”
The letter dated Feb. 21 February and signed by Fiji’s military chief and interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was directed to the Pacific Islands Forum chairman and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare.
Fiji, the letter said, preferred that “someone chaired the joint working group from our own regional organization.”
“The report of this working group would form the basis of discussions at the Forum foreign affairs ministers meeting, when it is held next to discuss Fiji.”
Bainimarama’s correspondence comes after the leak of the Forum Eminent Person’s Group to the media last week which forced him to make public his interim government’s three-year roadmap to parliamentary democracy.
He was “disappointed” and “surprised” that contents of the EPG report were leaked to the media before they were discussed by the mandated body, the Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting.