New Zealand's Speaker of Parliament Trevor Mallard has stressed that there is a need for New Zealanders to learn more about the geography, economy or political system of Pacific Island countries.
He made these comments while speaking at the New Zealand High Commissioner’s residence in Suva.
He says they learned a lot about European economic geography, the economy in the United States and actually almost nothing about the geography, economy or the political systems of their nearest neighbors.
Mallard says not long after he became speaker, he managed to do a bit of budgetary allocation for funding to take him to the parliament to the Pacific every year and Fiji was top of the priority list for the visit.
He added that the relationship between Fiji and New Zealand is developing and getting warmer and warmer.
While welcoming Mallard, Fiji's Speaker of Parliament Ratu Epeli Nailatikau thanked the New Zealand Government for assisting Fiji in the early stages of the peacekeeping missions.
Ratu Epeli says we have over the years a very strong peacekeeping role around the world and he emphasized that this would not have been possible without the assistance of New Zealand.
Ratu Epeli says they encouraged us, we got the equipment that we needed to go to Lebanon and that was the beginning.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, other Ministers, Members of Parliament and other senior government officials were also part of the event.
