The Chairman,Hon. Milner Tozaka, Minister for Foreign Affairs & External Trade of the Solomon Islands,

Honorable Ministers,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Heads of Delegations,

Senior Officials,

Director General and members of the MSG Secretariat,

Ladies and Gentlemen,


Bula Vinaka andwarm greetings to all of you!

Mr. Chair,

1. I would like to begin by congratulating you on your appointment as the Chairman of the Foreign Ministers Meeting (FMM). I am confident that under your able leadership, we would be able to successfully achieve our collective goals for the next two years. I also assure you of Fiji’s full support and cooperation in that regard.

2. At the same time, I would also like to thank the outgoing Chair, Madame Caroline Reignier – Machoro of the FLNKS for her competent leadership during the past two years.

Mr. Chairman,

3. I express my sincere gratitude as well to the Government and the people of the Solomon Islands for being wonderful hosts and for all the courtesies accorded to my delegation since our arrival. We are also appreciative of the excellent theme that you have chosen for our meeting, which resonates very well with the principles and spirit of the 2038 Prosperity for All Plan.

4. And I commend the Director General and the members of the Secretariat for all the support provided towards the excellent organization of this meeting.

Mr. Chairman,

5. At the outset, I wish to acknowledge the successful conduct of the national elections in Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Fiji last year. In doing so, I congratulate you on your new appointment as Foreign Minister of Solomon Islands and also the appointment of our colleague from Vanuatu –Mr. Serge Vohor.

6. During the elections in Fiji, it was exemplary to see the MSG deploy its first ever Elections Observer Mission to be part of the Multinational Observer Group. It was such a great initiative as we had greatly benefitted from their contributions. I thank all our members and the Secretariat for your support and assistance towards our national elections.

Mr. Chairman,

7. As we are all aware, this year, Vanuatu was hit by one of the worst cyclones of the century causing devastative impacts to lives and infrastructure. I offer our condolences to the Government and the people of Vanuatu. Fiji was honoured to be able to assist in the rehabilitation efforts for our brothers and sisters in the aftermath of Cyclone Pam. Learning from this experience, we express our full support towards the finalization of the Humanitarian and Emergency Response Coordination Center (HERCC) to improve our collaboration for any future emergency and rehabilitation needs.

8. On the on-going debate surrounding West Papua, we look forward to discussing this during our meeting with a view to making a firm decision on the applications that we have received.

Mr. Chairman,

9. Judging from the agenda that we have for our meeting in the next two days, it is evident that as an organization, our scope of work and mandate has somewhat increased greatly. This exemplifies our commitment and aspiration as a Group to explore and secure greater opportunities for our economies and peoples.

10. It would be remiss of me therefore not to urge all members to pay our outstanding assessed contributions so that we can advance and implement some of the current pending initiatives.

11. As member countries make their best efforts to pay their contributions in these difficult times, I also take this opportunity to stress to the Secretariat of the need for financial judiciousness.

Mr. Chairman,

12. It is important for us to be vigilant and exercise due diligence in the various initiatives we intend to undertake because we are limited by the extent of what our economies can provide towards the operation of the Organisation. We must always protect the integrity of the Group and focus on the core objectives of the Organisation. And we must live within our own means.

13. I am aware that the Agenda tabled at this meeting comprises a broad range of critical substantive issues. I have been informed that SOM has been meticulous in their analysis and deliberations of the issues that have been tabled for our consideration; therefore I congratulate our Senior Officials for their time and diligence.

Lastly Mr. Chairman,

14. I reiterate Fiji’s unwavering support towards the MSG. We look forward to working closely with all our members in line with the principles of the 2038 Prosperity for All Plan to enhance the work of the Organisation for the benefit of our peoples.

15. I thank you for your attention.

VinakaVakalevu and Tank iu!