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  Note: All transcripts are copyright to Front Page Ltd but may be used PROVIDED attribution is made to TVONE and Agenda
RAWDON And this is the Forum speaking as one voice, not being strong armed by New Zealand and Australia? GLYN I don’t believe so Rawdon and I think that’s a bit of a red herring on the part of the interim government, I can understand why he would be looking for countries to blame but this is the Forum speaking as one and that was quite clear to me yesterday. RAWDON It seems there's little chance that Fiji's going to be holding democratic elections in March so what's the US going to do to change its mind? GLYN Well I think what we'll do is we'll stick with the Forum, we'll back the Forum, and we'll stick with the principled stand that we took when he mounted the coup which was to suspend military assistance, to invoke some visa sanctions and to send a very strong political message to the interim government that it was very important to get back to legitimate government and to democracy. RAWDON It seems there's little chance that Fiji's going to be holding democratic elections in March so what's the US going to do to change its mind? GLYN Well I don’t think you'll find the United States doing this or setting out on its own with any sort of a dramatic policy that is at variance with the Pacific. I think this is a case where Pacific institutions are working, they're working marvellously well to confront this challenge and what's important for the friends of the Pacific who gathered yesterday on Niue is to show that support to the PIF and so that’s what I think we'll do. RAWDON Sanctions obviously carry a huge power in these areas, what further sanctions can be applied? GLYN Well that’s something that I suppose countries will have to look at, but you know the sanctions are already fairly stringent here and I don’t know that this is an issue of there being a necessity for many more sanctions against Fiji, I think this is really a moment when what's needed is diplomacy between the Forum and Commodore Bainimarama to figure out a way forward and I think that was what was so good about this statement issued at Niue, it gives him a way forward, it talks about a meeting before the end of the year and so he needs to think long and hard as the interim head of Fiji about how he deals with that. I'm not surprised that initially he issued a fairly strongly worded statement to the people of Fiji, that’s the morning after kind of reaction, now I think we need to see a considered reaction from the interim government. RAWDON Mr Davies why is the US so interested in this region? GLYN It's of strategic importance for the United States, we're a Pacific power, I think we're very concerned about Fiji because Fiji is a big country almost a million people, it's very much a hub for the Pacific and what happens in Fiji is watched by other countries in the Pacific, so that makes this of more than simply parochial interest to Fiji, it makes it of interest to all who care about the development of the Pacific. RAWDON It's also a country which receives aid from China, military support and other aid, does this have a bearing here? GLYN No I don’t think that’s a big factor, I mean obviously we're watching what China is doing in the region, they're probably watching what we're doing in the region. We are increasingly talking to the Chinese about the importance of providing assistance on the basis of transparency and of seeking to support good governance, we think the Chinese are listening, we'll be watching that, but this is not about some sort of a strategic competition for the Pacific, this is about helping Pacific nations achieve the sort of stability good governance and democratic institutions that they need to prosper and to go forward. RAWDON Bainimarama yesterday said Pacific Island countries need to be vigilant, so what implications does the lack of a democratic election here have further afield across the Pacific in countries such as Tonga? GLYN Well I think other countries watch him but this – I'm glad you ask about Tonga because here's one of the interesting things about the recent period in the Pacific, at the same time Fiji has been kind of stuck in this coup and has been unable to make really much progress toward democracy, we've seen positive developments in the Solomon Islands, we've seen positive developments in Tonga, so one of the positive development region wide is that there isn't some sort of contagion that’s coming out of Suva that we see, but that doesn’t make it any more – or any less important that we try to get at this problem and help Fiji's neighbours get Fiji back on the democratic path. RAWDON Mr Davies New Zealand US relations are about more than just Fiji and Condoleezza Rice recently carefully chose the word ally to describe our relationship, this week it's been announced that we're to join US troops on a joint exercise in Germany, how significant is this? GLYN I think it's not insignificant, I think it's a good thing that we're finding ways even on a military to military basis to cooperate more and work together more. I hope we see more of that, and in talking to your military and talking to my colleagues in our military there's a great deal of interest in trying to find ways that we can work together. The alliance ended 20 years ago the formal capital A you know ANZUS alliance, that was then this is now it's a new era, but in the post 9/11 era there is a vast range of activities that we can be engaged in together and that’s exactly what we're working on. RAWDON That’s Glyn Davies, so Brent what did you take from that? BRENT EDWARDS Well I think it's fairly clear that the US has always had a strong interest in the Pacific but they have pretty much left it to New Zealand and Australia to sort of promote these views around democracy here, so that was quite interesting. The issue that it raises obviously New Zealand and Australia both you know quite big donors in the Pacific as is the European Union and the US, but then as you raise the irritant there is China and what role will China play, is it possible if Fiji gets isolated it'll look more and more to China and I think when we look elsewhere around the world China hasn’t been adverse to using that and providing support to errant states in order to get some sort of leverage out of that, so that'll be the big issue, but most of those countries do support the push on Fiji I think as I said earlier by not attending Frank Bainimarama made a tactical error. The big thing that comes out of it though in terms of all of the public reportage out of it is there are big serious issues for the Pacific aside from Fiji around how the Pacific copes with climate change, the whole thing around economic development and those are really serious issues for the Pacific to grapple with and Fiji remaining a constant irritant really takes a lot of focus away from those other issues. BRIAN FALLOW Well I think if Fiji's an irritant in the short term so is the potential penetration of the South Pacific by China, he did use the phrase you know strategic competition, nobody wants to see that, so there is a kind of reciprocity value for the Americans in having New Zealand and Australia standing up for the values we have here and the Americans not having to do it. RAWDON He did say that they were talking with China about transparency and good governance, what sort of talks would those is? BRENT Well I think they're continuing to talk all the time with China about what its intentions are in this regions perhaps as well as other regions and the Chinese are probably keen to see what the American intentions – the other thing around the Pacific also that’s a complication is not just the Chinese involvement but Taiwan and the competition that you can see between Taiwan and China and that often can be detrimental to the region rather than helpful. RAWDON And messy. |
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