SIG postpones consultative meeting with PIF and RAMSI delegations

by Deli Oso, Press Secretary to the PM

The Solomon Islands government has postponed a consultative meeting with a delegation of the Pacific Islands Forum and the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands yesterday morning due to the short notice it was given for the talk.

Secretary to Prime Minister, Rence Sore said the government was only notified of the Pacific Islands Forum arranged meeting last weekend and had to put it off for a later date to allow government ministries to prepare the government position on the various agendas for the tripartite consultative meeting.

Mr Sore said it was the duty of the Government’s Special Envoy to RAMSI, Michael Maina to notify the government of such important meeting in good time to allow relevant government officials to prepare the position paper.

“The government’s position to the consultation must be endorsed by the cabinet before public officers can proceed into dialogue with the Pacific Islands Forum and RAMSI. At the moment that position is yet to be endorsed.”

“So what will happen is that we the government officers will meet to look at relevant papers on the issues for discussion at the meeting to put together the government position paper before it will be submitted to cabinet for endorsement.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would soon be mobilizing the responsible government officers to work on the document. The Minister for Foreign Affairs would be presenting this document to cabinet for approval upon its completion,” he said.

The Secretary to the Prime Minister said issues to be discussed at the tripartite consultation included RAMSI’s medium term strategy.

He said the RAMSI document was submitted to the government for comments.