5 Jan 2009

Fiji appoints Bole to lead committee for dialogue with NZ and Australia

2:27 pm on 5 January 2009

The Fiji interim regime has set up a three-member team to work on improving relations between Fiji and the governments of Australia and New Zealand.

This follows last month's Fiji decision to expel New Zealand's acting high commissioner, Caroline McDonald, after alleging that she had been acting inappropriately in Fiji.

She was declared persona non grata 18 months after Fiji expelled the New Zealand high commissioner, Michael Green.

Fiji's Interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has told Fijilive that the interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama has written to the New Zealand government to engage with the new Fiji committee.

It is being headed by interim Local Government Minister Filipe Bole who was Fiji's foreign minister in the late 1980's and 1990s.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum says he is yet to receive a response from Australia and New Zealand.