The Melanesian Spearhead Group Foreign Ministers meeting gets underway today in New Caledonia.
The meeting, which is being held on Lifou in the Loyalty Islands, comes ahead of the annual Leaders Summit in Noumea later this week.
Johnny Blades reports from Noumea.
"Senior officials from MSG members - Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia's FLNKS movement - have been meeting over recent days in Noumea to prepare items for discussions among the leaders. A number of issues including trade and labour mobility are understood to be on the agenda. However the discussion item dominating this MSG summit is the formal membership bid by the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation which leaders will decide on at the end of the week. In signs that an important member of the group may not be in support of the bid, PNG's Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato is absent, with PNG's High Commissioner to Fiji Peter Eafeare filling in for him in Lifou, while the office of PNG's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has said he will not be at the leaders summit, and that Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion will be there on his behalf."
