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RI steps up efforts to woo MSG members
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi utilized the opening of the 60th Asian-African Conference Commemoration on Sunday to continue her diplomatic efforts toward Pacific nations, which will soon hold a high-ranking meeting to discuss a membership application of a West Papuan group
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oreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi utilized the opening of the 60th Asian-African Conference Commemoration on Sunday to continue her diplomatic efforts toward Pacific nations, which will soon hold a high-ranking meeting to discuss a membership application of a West Papuan group.
Retno had bilateral meetings with her seven counterparts on Sunday, with four of them from members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) who would attend the conference as observers.
The four Pacific ministers are Solomon Islands' Foreign Minister Milner Tozaka, Fiji's Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, Vanuatu's Sato Kilman and Papua New Guinea's Rimbink Pato.
'The number of Melanesians in Indonesia is higher than all of the Melanesian population in the Pacific. If you talk about Melanesia, you talk about Indonesia. If you talk about Indonesia, you talk about Melanesia,' Retno said after her meeting with Kilman.
The Vanuatuan minister confirmed that the issue concerning the United Liberation Movement of West Papua's (ULMWP) full membership application, which was submitted to MSG's headquarters in Port Vila, Vanuatu, last month, had also been discussed.
'Yes, I confirmed with her the application has come with the MSG,' Kilman told The Jakarta Post.
The ULMWP is a grouping of three West Papuan groups, namely the Federal Republic of West Papua, the West Papua National Parliament and the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL). The MSG Leaders' Summit in Port Moresby last year rejected WPNCL's membership application.
'Last year, MSG leaders made a decision on the first application which was seen that they were not united, so they first need unity. So, we asked them to reapply,' he added.
MSG leaders are expected to meet and discuss this new application in the Solomon Islands around July. Retno is expected to attend the MSG Summit as an observer.
Papua New Guinea's Pato, however, suggested taking a different stance on the issue.
'On the application, the leaders of the MSG think that, should there be an application, they must represent all Melanesians living here in Indonesia. And the application must have the full endorsement of the government of Indonesia,' he said after his meeting with Retno, without elaborating.
Retno also extended invitations to all four Pacific ministers to take part in the Melanesian Art and Culture festival in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, scheduled for October.
The other three foreign ministers to have bilateral meetings with Retno were South Africa's Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Iraq's Ibrahim Abdulkarim Hamza Al-Jafari and Nepal's Mahendra Bahadur Pandey.
Maite reiterated regret over South African President Jacob Zuma's last-minute cancellation to attend the summit due to the spreading xenophobic attacks in the country's two big cities, Johannesburg and Durban, in which six lives had been claimed.
