Nauru withdrawing from the Forum, not taken lightly: President
REPUBLIC OF NAURU
Government Information Office
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, 9 February, 2021
Nauru withdrawing from the
Forum, not taken lightly: President
His Excellency President Lionel
Aingimea says the decision to withdraw Nauru's membership from the
Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) was not taken lightly, however, does
not stand to lose from the region and its partners.
The President says the decision to
leave the Forum was "quite difficult," given that Nauru was one of
the seven founding members.
"Because we had to examine a lot of
things. This was not a decision that was taken lightly. That was a
decision taken with a lot of emotion, a lot of thought and with a
lot of examination in regards to Nauru being a founding member of
PIFS."
The President said Nauru's
bilateral relationships with the Pacific countries including Fiji,
other CROP agencies, donor partners, and international bodies such
as the European Union and the United Nations who are based in Fiji,
remain the same.
Nauru's high commission in Suva,
Fiji will not close emphasising that Nauru has other engagements
and responsibilities in Fiji including the many Nauruan students
that study there. President Aingimea has communicated the intention
not to close the mission to his Micronesian counterparts.
The process to withdraw membership
from the Forum will take legal effect in one year. The year will
enable the Micronesia leaders to satisfy their own internal
procedures and laws to complete the process which is expected to
involve a number of negotiations and discussions.
"Micronesia has made an
unprecedented move," the President said but does not lay blame on
anyone for what has transpired to the withdrawal of the sub-region
of Micronesia - almost a third of the PIF member states.
"It's just how things have
developed."
"We (Micronesia) don't want to see
this fraction. We want to stay united [in this] Blue Ocean.
Unfortunately half of the Blue Ocean is owned by Micronesia, but
seems nobody wants to take that into account."
President Aingimea said while there
is an understanding of the gentleman's agreement to rotate the SG
position among the three sub-regions of Micronesia, Melanesian and
Polynesia, some Pacific countries deny it exists.
"It's Micronesia's turn and we
believe we'll do a stellar job in holding that position.
"And certainly the other message
we'd like to send is, we, Micronesia stand together. We stand in
solidarity together and we are united in the principles that we
stand for."
President Aingimea suggests the
region as a whole may need to reassess some processes especially
the Forum to look at how the secretary general is selected.
The announcement made this morning
by the presidents of the five Micronesian countries (the Federated
States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and
Palau) to formally withdraw from the PIF is built on the 2020
Mekreos Communiqué agreed to by the leaders.
President Aingimea says the Mekreos
Communiqué is "the foundation" and "we stand by it."