31 Aug 2015

No Thai PM at PIDF but seven Pacific island leaders attend

8:49 pm on 31 August 2015

Leaders of seven Pacific island countries are attending the Pacific Islands Development Forum in Fiji this week.

The Inaugural Pacific Islands development Forum, 2013

The inaugural Pacific Islands Development Forum, 2013 Photo: RNZ

The Forum will concentrate on the theme of climate change in preparation for the World Climate Summit in Paris at the end of November.

Leaders are attending from Nauru, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tokelau and Tuvalu.

Marshall Islands is sending its Foreign Minister.

Thailand's prime minister is not now attending as the Forum's chief guest and the country will instead be represented by the deputy prime minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn.

The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, will also be at the meeting.

The forum which was set up by Fiji three years ago is seen as its response to being suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum in 2009.

Suva has now been reinstated at the Forum although the Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama says he won't be attending this year's leaders' summit in Port Moresby.