Fiji Foreign Minister slams comments by New Zealand Foreign Minister [1]
Tuesday, August 20, 2013 - 20:07. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Fiji’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola has slammed comments made by New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Murray McCully, regarding Fiji’s current isolation policy from the Pacific Island Forum.
In an interview with Radio New Zealand last week, Mr McCully criticized Ratu Kubuabola for praising Fiji’s success outside the Pacific Island Forum.
“Every now and then he makes these speeches about the success of their Look North strategy and how successful Fiji’s been without working with the Forum, but I respond to that by telling him that you can change a lot of things but you can’t change geography,” Mr McCully said.
“We are all interdependent in the Pacific region and I think one way or another we’ll see the countries of the Pacific find a way of working in greater harmony.”
Ratu Kabuabola responded to these comments, giving an equally scathing criticism of his own to the media. According to the Pacific Island News Association, Ratu Kabuabola was critical of the Australian and New Zealand government’s relationship to the Pacific.
He mentioned Australia and New Zealand’s visa policies, their exclusiveness in international discussions and Australia’s recent asylum seeker policy.
“This is evident enough to confirm that Australia and New Zealand do not share the development aspirations of the Pacific, as even in the international community they have a different agenda as a whole.”
"Why is it that in the international arena for instance in the United Nations, Australia and New Zealand are not with the Pacific grouping but under another umbrella group of countries when it comes to consultative discussions…Why is it that the Pacific Islanders are still required to obtain a visa to enter Australia and New Zealand?”
“If Australia and New Zealand were really relatives of the Pacific, then they would have consulted the Pacific at large on their Asylum Seeker Policy without trying to dump the solution in the Melanesia Group”
Ratu Kabuabola went on to make his own personal remarks of Mr McCully
“Now then McCully how do you define the term relative, is it one who is your close neighbour and is selfish or is it one who has an altruistic outlook? I say it’s the latter”
“It’s not the geography we share, but it’s the bond we share and the trust we have that matters the most. For Australia and New Zealand, I understand, it is just a coincidence of geography.”