New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carmel Sepuloni, will travel to Fiji and be part of the Pacific Islands Forum Special Leaders’ Retreat that will be held this Thursday and Friday in Nadi.
This will be her first opportunity in both roles to meet Pacific leaders face-to-face and discuss regional priorities and issues.
Sepuloni says New Zealand is proud to participate in meetings such as the Special Leaders’ Retreat, where they can contribute to decision-making and find solutions to shared challenges.
She says the Pacific Islands Forum serves as the preeminent mechanism to chart what is important in and to the Pacific and to respond to these priorities in a coordinated way.
A key focus of this Special Leaders’ Retreat will be the welcoming of Kiribati back as a Member of the Forum, reaffirming regional unity and ensuring they continue to make progress towards the shared goals.
Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will also transfer the chairing responsibilities of the Forum to Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown during the meeting.
Sepuloni says in the face of the increasingly complex challenges posed to the Pacific — including from climate change, the impacts of which are currently being felt here in New Zealand — a unified approach to collective action has never been more important.
She acknowledges that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins had been planning to attend the Forum, however, New Zealand needs its leader right now in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle and the devastation it has left behind.
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