20 Aug 2014

NZ foreign minister to visit Fiji

7:43 pm on 20 August 2014

The Fiji information ministry says New Zealand's foreign minister, Murray McCully, will be in Nadi on Friday for top level talks with his Fiji counterpart, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola.

The ministry says it will be the first such bilateral consultation since 2006.

It says an update on Fiji's election progress and the multinational observer group are expected to be a central part of the talks.

The two ministers have had regular meetings in recent years as Mr McCully is part of the Pacific Islands Forum's contact group on Fiji, whose membership was suspended five years ago.

Wellington and Suva have so far failed to restore full diplomatic relations despite a commitment to that effect in 2012.

Earlier this month, Fiji's prime minister, Rear Admiral Frank Bainimarama, visited New Zealand for the first time since the coup he led in 2006 but met no New Zealand government ministers.