Jayapura, Jubi – The current Chair of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Hon Manasseh Sogavare has deferred the Leaders’ Summit to a later date which will be announced in due course.
The summit was initially scheduled to begin tomorrow, 3rd May and conclude on Friday 6th May.
The deferment stemmed from a couple of issues of national political importance demanding his leadership and discernment.
The MSG Chair is in contact with the leaders of the other MSG countries to agree on possible dates and venues that would cost for the MSG member countries. Once these details are finalized, the MSG members will be informed together with the general public of the MSG countries.
This is done in an effort to ensure that the general MSG public is correctly informed of the decisions made by our MSG leaders. A series of incorrect regional news items have resulted in unnecessary tension and misunderstanding and has thus become a priority for the MSG Chair to ensure that correct, fact- based and MSG- endorsed information is relayed to the MSG community in a clear and transparent manner.
On the issue of the membership application of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua, the Chair has officially received the membership application. This application is now being disseminated to the MSG member countries and will be a priority matter on the agenda of the MSG Leaders’ Summit.
The MSG Chair has also sent his Special Envoy on West Papua, Mr Rex Stephen Horoi as his representative to the conference of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua.
It is envisaged that this two- day conference which begins in London today will deliberate on feasible and realistic strategies to maintain the high on the global agenda the right of the peoples of West Papua to determine their own future. The outcome of this conference will inform the decisions on West Papua at the next MSG Leaders’ Summit.
Other MSG Leaders to the IPWP Conference are Hon Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Lands in the Republic of Vanuatu and Hon Gary Juffa, Governor of Oro (Northern) Province in Papua New Guinea. (*)
