Fiji’s international standing gains momentum with COP 23 Presidency

February 14, 2017

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 SUVA, 14 FEBRUARY 2017 (FIJI TV) —- Governments efforts over the last 10 years in building Fiji’s international standing and putting the concerns of the Fijian people on the global agenda gains momentum this year with the COP 23 Presidency.

 Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama made the statement at a diplomacy trade craft training at the Foreign Affairs Ministry Monday.

 Bainimarama said Fiji is punching above it’s weight in the international arena.

 Bainimarama who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs highlighted this year as a very significant year with Fiji hosting two global events relating to climate change.

 There is no year more consequential for Fiji’s diplomatic efforts than the one that lies ahead. All of our work in the past decade to build up our international standings and to put the concerns of the Fijian people at the forefront of the global agenda is culminating in 2017. First we lead the world in working to preserve our Oceans resources as Co-chair of the UN Ocean Summit and then we preside over COP 23, both events covering issues of paramount importance for Fiji and for every small island state in the world ” said Bainimarama.

 Foreign Affairs Ministry officials, Bainimarama said are at the front line of building Fiji’s global presence and maintaining international ties crucial to our national development.

 “For our staff from Foreign Affairs and all our civil servants, each of you are tasked with telling Fiji’s story with relaying our priorities as a nation as concisely and as convincingly as possible. This course will help you achieve that by developing abilities to communicate effectively and hone your competence as negotiators both foundation aspects of meaningful diplomacy,” said Bainimarama. 

 The Diplomacy Trade craft training was facilitated by two former Australian diplomats.

 “My government sees learning and professionalisation as a continuous process. We’re not suppose to stop learning until we retire. I’ve still got plenty of learning ahead. We’re never too young or too old to experience to learn more and to get better at what we do. You can do all the training in the world and still not be of use to your government without focus or without discipline and it’s also a lot is simply about really hard work” said Margaret Twomey – Australian High Commissioner.

 Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa is open to dialogue with the Trump administration.

 This is in relation to concerns over US President Donald Trumps stance on climate change, and possibilities of pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty that sets the goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius, above pre-industrial levels.

 The world’s two largest carbon emitters are China and the United States.