Toribiong with other leaders of the Pacific nation is set to attend the Pacific Island Forum meeting in Vanuatu in August.It is expected that the issue will be raised during the forum.
“I will be a listener first and observe,” Toribiong stated.
He said that there are two opposing views which are deserving of some consideration.
Palau was not able to attend Fiji’s planned meeting with a number of Pacific Island countries, last week due to the unavailability of flights and time constraints.
Fiji’s Commodore Frank Bainarama made the invitation to Palau and other Pacific Island nations after expelling Australia’s Acting High Commissioner Sarah Roberts from the country for what it alleges as interfering in Fiji’s internal affairs.
“This is a delicate issue, we don’t want to interfere in the internal affairs of the country but at the same time, we support human rights,” Toribiong said.
Most of the members of the forum including Palau were opposed to Fiji’s military regime.
Roberts, Australia’s senior diplomat in Suva was ordered out of country recently amid accusations Australia was meddling in Fiji’s internal affairs.
She was declared persona non grata after the five-member Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) cancelled a scheduled summit in Fiji citing concerns about democracy and “good governance” since the 2006 military coup.
Canberra had lobbied for the summit to be postponed, and a Fiji government statement said Roberts’ expulsion was a direct result of “interfering with the internal affairs of Fiji and conducting unfriendly acts”.
Australia and New Zealand have been among the harshest critics of Fiji since Bainimarama led a bloodless coup four years ago and later put back a return to democratic elections from 2009 to 2014.
Since the 2006 coup, Fiji has been suspended from the Commonwealth and the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum and has been hit with sanctions by the European Union and countries including the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
