The Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama is unable to attend the dinner hosted by Commonwealth Secretary General, Don Mckinnon, at which the main topic of conversation was to be the political situation in Fiji.
Vijay Narayan, our News Director said that Bainimarama had already had a booking with the Tonga Fiji Business Council Event tonight and would be unavailable.
Vijay Narayan reports: Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon has invited Fiji’s Interim PM Commodore Frank Bainimarama to a dinner hosted by him to try to speak to Bainimarama about the situation in Fiji. While speaking in Nuku’Alofa today, McKinnon confirmed that the invitation has been sent to all the Pacific island leaders including NZ PM Helen Clark and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. McKinnon says he is looking forward to meeting with Bainimarama this week and discussing the progress to democracy in Fiji.
Don McKinnon: I don’t think so really. You see as Commonwealth Secretary General, when the Commonwealth suspends a member country as was done with Fiji, the Secretary General has a responsibility to give in to dialogue with the leader of whatever. I encourage them to come back into the democratic frame and back into a full democracy. So it’s my job to give in to dialogue with the Commodore.
Meanwhile, Princess Salote Pilolevu was present at the airport to greet the Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama upon his arrival in Tonga earlier today.
Vijay Narayan reports: Fiji’s Interim PM Commodore Frank Bainimarama received a warm reception when he arrived here in Tonga at about midday today for the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum. Commodore Bainimarama was welcomed to Tonga by Princess Salote Pilolevu at the Fua’amotu Airport in Nuku’Alofa before he was welcomed at the International Dateline Hotel by Tongan PM Dr Feleti Sevele. Commodore Bainimarama says the warm reception received at the airport has sent a clear message to him that Tonga and Fiji remain good friends. Following that, Dr Sevele, the Tongan PM, met him at the International Dateline Hotel and welcomed him to the forum meeting which he was touched by. He is looking forward to the meeting which officially gets underway sometime tomorrow. Bainimarama goes into his first meeting at the forum in the next hour when the Pacific/ACP leaders meet about future trade agreements. Bainimarama will then attend a dinner hosted by the Tonga/Fiji Business Council and he has confirmed that he will send his apologies to the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon who had invited him for dinner with other Pacific island leaders tonight.
The Pacific Island Leaders Forum officially starts tomorrow.
Bainimarama was accompanied by Permanent Secretary to the PM's Office, Parmesh Chand, Interim Attorney General, Aiyaz Saiyad Khaiyum and Interim Commerce Minister, Taito Waradi.
And still in Tonga, Pro democracy activist Angie Heffernan has denied media reports about using dubious means to try and get in to the Pacific Island Leaders Forum in Tonga.
Angie Heffernan: Yesterday I was with the Fiji media delegation. I went across to the media centre not to try and impersonate my way through that but to try and get a bit of an update of what the programme would be in terms of the next few days of the forum. I spoke to the Fiji media delegation and tried to explain to them that as NGOs, it is absolutely impossible. The security around the forum is very tight. Access to government officials both at their hotels and at the forum centre is extremely tight. There are two ways normally that civil society tries to actually lobby at a forum. One is through either trying to get on government delegations and the other one is if they were able to convince a newspaper or a news outlet to file stories on their behalf. There is nothing wrong in doing that.
It was earlier reported that officials of the Forum Secretariat are now keeping a close watch on Heffernan after she allegedly tried to use dubious means to obtain a pass to the meeting venue of the Pacific Island leader forum in Tonga.
It was earlier reported that officials of the Forum Secretariat are now keeping a close watch on Heffernan after she allegedly tried to use dubious means to obtain a pass to the meeting venue of the Pacific Island leader forum in Tonga.
