New Zealand minister may meet Fiji strongman as ties warm

Feb 23, 2010, 5:50 GMT

Wellington - New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Tuesday that he may meet Fiji's military strongman Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama in Hong Kong next month in a bid to improve chilly diplomatic relations.

Fiji has been in the diplomatic deep freeze since Bainimarama took over the country in a bloodless coup in December 2006, with the British Commonwealth of Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum suspending its membership and the European Union withholding aid.

New Zealand and Australia, Fiji's largest neighbours in the Pacific, have imposed travel bans on Bainimarama and his ministers but have been trying to revive relations.

Bainimarama, however, has spurned demands to hold elections and restore democracy to the island state of 930,000 people.

He insists he will not go to the polls before November 2014 after rewriting voting laws to ensure equal rights between the indigenous Fijian majority and ethnic Indians.

Bainimarama has governed under emergency powers, including strict censorship of the media, since April when he revoked the constitution and sacked the judges after the Court of Appeal ruled his government illegal.

In a statement to parliament, McCully said, 'It is correct that, at this stage, our respective diaries place both Mr Bainimarama and myself in Hong Kong for two days in March and that in principle we have agreed to take the opportunity for an informal meeting if this proves logistically possible.'

But he assured fellow parliamentarians, 'Our commitment to democracy, the rule of law and human rights is undiminished.'

McCully noted that since July 2007, Bainimarama had thrown out three senior New Zealand diplomats and a trade commissioner and refused to accept new police and defence attaches.

'This has seriously threatened our capacity to deliver the range of services that we would expect to deliver from the mission, including our capacity to conduct meaningful dialogue with the Fiji administration,' he said.

He said he agreed his Fiji counterpart Ratu Inoke Kabuabola on Saturday to exchange diplomats with a view to improving relations.