Fiji and it's future role in gatherings such as this week's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is just one of the issues that Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Peter Shanel believes will be raised at the gathering in Perth the capital of Western Australia.
The Foreign Minister is heading the Solomon delegation to the current Commonwealth meeting.While in an interview with Radio Australia's Michael Cavanagh, Hon. Shanel stated that countries need to engage Fiji to help them achieve their road map and strategy framework to independence in 2014.
"I'm not saying that we should forget what they've done, but we should always, the past will always remind us of how we can go forward and change things better," says Hon. Shanel.
"Our policy is very simple. We believe in a strong advocate that we should always engage with Fiji."
While being questioned on the unfinished PNG Chancery in the Solomon Islands, Hon. Shanel stated that a new contractor from PNG will be engaged for the completion of the chancery.
Hon. Shanel stated that the Solomon Islands Prime Minister with his counterpart in PNG have already begun discussions on this. The current contractor will no longer be engaged to complete the work.
While being questioned on RAMSI, Hon. Shanel stated that "at the moment, we are talking about the transition period and we're looking at the year 2013 for the complete draw down of RAMSI, but also we are working on a framework, a strategy framework of how we can achieve that transition, one of them is to perhaps look at increasing AusAID and some of the work that RAMSI has been doing that AusAID can take over I suppose if RAMSI continue with it."