Fiji Invited By Indonesia For West Papua Briefing

Fiji Invited By Indonesia For West Papua Briefing

08:05 Today

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has been invited by the Indonesian government to receive briefings on development in Papua and West Papua provinces.

Indonesia’s Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Su-yanto says the invitation was extended to Bainimarama when they met earlier this month.

Bainimarama is among foreign affairs ministers of Melanesian Spearhead Group countries that have also been invited to the briefing.

Su-yanto says the ministers have been invited to observe Indonesia’s development in general, which also includes the government’s policy on the acceleration of development in Papua and West Papua.

He denied, however, that the invitations were aimed at countering Papuan pro-independence activists’ efforts to win support from the international community.

Melanesian leaders have repeatedly voiced their support for Papuan self-determination.

It was decided at the end of the MSG Leaders Summit in New Caledonia yesterday that Fiji’s Foreign Minister Rau Inoke Kubuabola will lead a fact-finding mission to Jakarta.

The mission will consist of all foreign ministers of the MSG member countries and they are to report back to the MSG leaders in six months.

The MSG consists of Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, as well as theFLNKS, a pro-independence group from French-ruled New Caledonia.

ENDS

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