Fiji’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ratu Inoke Kubuabola held key bilateral meetings with his Australia and New Zealand counterparts in New York today.
The foreign minister is in New York participating at the United Nations’ General Assembly’s 68th session and participating at side meetings. Today the Fijian foreign minister met with his counterparts from New Zealand, the Honourable Murray McCully, and the Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs the Honourable Julie Bishop.
In both meetings, Minister Kubuabola was able to update his counterparts on Fiji's new constitution, and further steps taken along the roadmap to elections to be held no later than September 2014. Frank and fruitful discussions were held with both Ministers McCully and Minister Bishop on bilateral relations.
In acknowledging the progress Fiji has made, Minister Bishop recognised Fiji's steadfast contributions to UN peacekeeping, in particular the willingness to deploy to difficult situations around the world. She also acknowledged Fiji's standing in the UN community through its G77 Chairmanship in 2013.
In both bilateral meetings, the Ministers agreed to maintain regular contact and to work towards normalising full relations with Fiji.
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