1 Jun 2010

Bainimarama queries Forum group's planned Fiji visit

3:09 pm on 1 June 2010

Fiji's interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, questions why the Australian and New Zealand foreign ministers want to visit Fiji in the next few weeks.

This comes after the Pacific Islands Forum Ministerial Contact group met in Auckland to discuss the Fiji relationship and found that the situation in Fiji had worsened.

The group, which was set up two years ago, is tasked with encouraging Fiji's military-led government to return to democracy but the Suva regime has said it won't relinquish power to an elected government before 2014.

Commodore Bainimarama has told the Fijivillage website that the two ministers' comment shows that there is no good intention on their part.

He says they still want to come to Fiji when they have already announced to the world that the situation in Fiji has worsened.

The Forum suspended Fiji's membership last year but has affirmed that it will maintain its secretariat in Suva.