By Nazario Rodriguez Jr.
Horizon news staff

Minister Temmy L. Shmull and Foreign Affairs Director Isaac Soalablai are leaving today to attend the upcoming Foreign Affairs Minister’s meeting to be held this Friday March 16 in Port Villa, Vanuatu.
Part of the agenda is the recent developments in Fiji, which went through a coup d’ etat and is now under an interim government.
In a press release yesterday, the office of Min. Shmull said that the meeting would be to consider the report of the Forum Eminent Person’s Group (FEPG) that was submitted to the Foreign Ministers on Feb. 16, 2007.
FEPG Secretary General Greg Urwin recently wrote President Remengesau to inform members that the Forum chairman who is the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea had been consulted about this.
The press release said that representatives of the interim government of Fiji are invited to the meeting to hear the presentation of the FEPG’s report and to respond to it.
The FEPG was established last year to address the latest coup in Fiji based on Biketawa Declaration, which Forum Leaders adopted on Oct. 28, 2000 in the interests of regional cooperation.
The press release stressed that this regional cooperation recognized the need in time of crisis or in response to members’ request for assistance, for action to be taken on the basis of all members of the Forum being part of the Pacific Islands extended family.
It also stressed that the Forum Leaders, while respecting the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of another member-state committed themselves and their countries to a number of guiding principles and courses of actions enumerated in the Biketawa Declaration.