Deputy PM Carmel Sepuloni to attend Pacific leaders' meeting

Monday, 20 February 2023

It comes after the US announced its new Pacific strategy aimed to increase engagement in the region.

Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Carmel Sepuloni will travel to Fiji this week for the Pacific Islands Forum Special Leaders’ Retreat.

It will be her first official visit to the region since taking office a month ago.

Sepuloni said it would also be her first opportunity in both roles to meet Pacific leaders face to face and discuss regional priorities and issues.

“Prime Minister Chris Hipkins had been planning to attend the Forum, however New Zealand needs its leader right now in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle and the devastation it has left behind,” she said.

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Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni will carry New Zealand’s message to the Pacific Islands Forum leaders retreat in Fiji this week.

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Sepuloni said the Forum serves as the “pre-eminent mechanism” to chart what is important in and to the Pacific, and to respond to these priorities in a co-ordinated way.

“Aotearoa New Zealand is proud to participate in meetings such as the Special Leaders’ Retreat, where we can contribute to decision-making and find solutions to shared challenges,” she said in a statement.

A key focus of the leaders’ retreat includes welcoming Kiribati back as a member of the forum after withdrawing its support for the regional political body last July.

Discussions will also centre on Japan’s planned release of treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean this year which the forum wants Tokyo to delay over safety concerns.

United States President Joe Biden has been invited to the meeting but the White House has yet to confirm whether he will travel to Fiji. Biden hosted Pacific leaders in a summit in Washington in September.

The retreat reaffirms regional unity and ensures progress continues towards shared goals, Sepuloni said.

At the meeting, Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will transfer chairing responsibilities of the forum to his Cook Islands counterpart, Mark Brown.

“In the face of the increasingly complex challenges posed to the Pacific – including from climate change, the impacts of which are currently being felt here in New Zealand – a unified approach to collective action has never been more important,” Sepuloni said.

The deputy prime minister leaves New Zealand on Thursday.