Prime Minister (PM) Rick Houenipwela had explained the sour relationship with member countries of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) revealing six issues that gave rise to the ill relationship.
Houenipwela was responding to question asked by Member of Parliament (MP) for Aoke-Langalanga Matthew Wale.
Mr Wale asked the PM that in his recent trip to handover the MSG chairmanship, PM apologised for sour relations within MSG.
Wale asked the PM to inform the house on the cause and nature of those sour relations and specify which member countries were involved.
PM revealed that firstly the sour relationship was to do with the manner in which the Director General (DG) of MSG was recruited, adding he was a Fijian so Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea (PNG) were not happy for reasons that the recruitment should be done on consensus and conclusion be made in MSG.
However, PM said the issue was settled in year 2016 so leaders forget about it.
Secondly, Houenipwela said re-engagement of DG in COP23 to work with chairman of COP23 has prompted disagreement on Vanuatu and PNG as well.
But he said the recent meeting in PNG had enabled the leaders to settle the differences.
Thirdly, he said the application by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) for membership in MSG.
He said to become a full member there is a procedure to follow and criteria to meet, thus PNG and Fiji were not happy with that.
Fourthly, the issue of West Papua was handled by Vanuatu and Solomon Islands outside of MSG procedures so both Fiji and PNG not happy with that.
Fifth, management style after the DG was recruited in terms of staff recruitment has created some differences so the issue was raised in the recent summit.
Finally, because the issue Vanuatu raised so Fiji wants the MSG secretariat to relocate to Fiji.
However, Houenipwela said all these issues of differences were settled so leaders agree to move on.
By AATAI JOHN LAUNGI
