23 Jun 2012

Fiji regime leader to visit New Caledonia next month

4:38 am on 23 June 2012

The Fiji information ministry says the prime minister will lead a ministerial delegation of the Melanesian Spearhead Group to New Caledonia.

It says the visit will take place at the beginning of July and allow Commodore Frank Bainimarama to assess the implementation of the Noumea Accord on greater autonomy.

The visit is also aimed at preparing the next MSG summit due in New Caledonia.

In April, the Caledonia Together leader, Philippe Gomes, and the territory's former member of the French senate, Simon Loueckhote, asked France to stop the visit, saying there was no call to host the region's only dictator.

The New Caledonian politicians also objected to Roch Wamytan attending the MSG summit in Fiji in March as he was New Caledonia's Congress president and thereby supporting the Fiji regime.