NZ expells Fiji diplomat

Updated November 4, 2009 18:25:33

New Zealand has joined Australia in expelling Fiji's top diplomat. Fiji's Acting Head of Mission in Wellington, Kuliniasi Seru Savou has ben declared persona non grata and instructed to leave New Zealand. New Zealand's foreign minister, Murray McCully, tells Bruce Hill the move was in response to Fiji interim prime minister Frank Bainimarama's expulsion of the New Zealand Acting Head of Mission in Fiji, Todd Cleaver.

Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: New Zealand's foreign minister, Murray McCully

McCULLY: At about 3 o'clock New Zealand time this afternoon, I invited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs people to deliver exactly the same message to the acting head of mission in Wellington and he's been instructed that he will have to leave the country as the Vienna Convention requires within a reasonable time period.

HILL: What's a reasonable time period?

McCULLY: Well, that's something I leave it to the system to work out, but I expect that to be sometime in the near future.

HILL: More than the 24 hours that the Australian and New Zealand representatives were given?

McCULLY: Yes, I've written in response to the foreign minister in Fiji and told him that I intend, I have instructed New Zealand officials that they must abide by the provisions of the Vienna Convention and provide a reasonable time period for their acting head to depart and I speak the Fijian administration to abide by the Vienna Convention to.

HILL: Is the 24 hours that they gave the Australian and New Zealand representatives enough time under the Vienna Convention?

McCULLY: It certainly does not comply with the Vienna Convention and I have drawn this to their attention.

HILL: Have you coordinated with your Australian counterpart, Steven Smith about this? Have Australia and New Zealand put their heads together over what to do about this?

McCULLY: Well, we certainly have. I spoke to Steven Smith an hour or so ago, so I am appraised of the situation in Australia and I think I spoke to him three times yesterday evening on the phone. Steven Smith and I work closely together and in circumstances, where we are trying to deal with a common set of challenges, we work particularly close together and I think it is important that people understand here that we've both decided to take this forward very carefully. We have got relationships in the Pacific that are important to us and we both share a desire to ensure that we don't inflame a difficult situation anymore.

HILL: Can these sort of tit-for-tat diplomatic actions go on indefinitely though?

McCULLY: No, well one would hope not. There is only one Fijian foreign policy person in New Zealand still and so the scope for it is not infinite. We are down to our last diplomat in Suva, so one would hope that we might move in the other direction. We've both found that the Commodore's taken a significant step backwards in the last 24 hours.

HILL: Why do you think he did?

McCULLY: Well, he's a man who obviously has been wound up somewhat by the attorney-general and the chief justice and to say that we do occasionally see a moderate and unreasonable behaviour from the Commodore would not be to far astray of the mark.

HILL: Are these tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions going to have any practical effect as regards travel between the two countries, people asking for visas, that kind of thing, not just tourists but also Fijian people living in Australia and New Zealand?

McCULLY: Yes, it will have some affect. We currently, our mission in Suva is closed. We are not able to service public requests for support at the moment. We're trying to access what we are able to do to reconfigure our operations within the remaining resources. So obviously those who are travelling to Fiji would need to factor that into the equation. In addition, the Immigration office that operates in Suva is purely there for the benefit of the Fijian people. It grants visas for them to come to New Zealand. Ah, the fact that the administration is making it difficult for us to operate that office in Fiji is only causing inconvenience to their own people, but we're trying to work our way through the situation that exists there and let's see where we get to.

HILL: Is this situation going to impact on the delivery of overseas aid, for example?

McCULLY: While we don't have any bilateral program involving the Fijian admiinstration. We have small programs involving the NGOS. Yes it is going to impact on that in the days immediately ahead, one hopes that those NZ Aid aid officials who obviously providing some support for the consular operations at the moment will be able resume their normal duties at some stage soon.