New body for Pacific studied

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 31

New body for Pacific studied

PA Wellington Four Foreign Ministers have agreed in Wellington on an interim report to this year’s South Pacific Forum exploring the establishment of a single regional organisation.

Papua New Guinea’s Minister, Mr Rabbie Namaliu,

said afterwards that the report would canvass issues and “say something about what the new organisation should do.”

It was "probably unlikely” that any new body would eventuate in the next year or so, because of “the way we are progressing,” Mr Namaliu said.

Mooted as a replacement for the regional secretariat organisation, the South Pacific Commission, and the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation, a new body, was also discussed by Foreign Ministers at Port Moresby last month. Mr Namaliu said the interim report, which would go before the South Pacific Forum in Tuvalu in August, would “require further work.”

He particularly mentioned the need for consultations with “metropolitan" Governments — France, Britain, and the United States.

The four Foreign Ministers — Mr Jonati Mavoa (Fiji), Prince Tupouto’a (Tonga), New Zealand’s Mr Cooper, and Mr Namaliu - considered political, constitutional, legal, financial, and administrative implications.