Fiji’s former ambassador to Ethiopia Mosese Tikoitoga is Fiji’s newly-appointed acting ambassador-at-large.
This was confirmed yesterday by Office of the Prime Minister permanent secretary Pita Wise. In response to queries from this newspaper, he said Mr Tikoitoga was appointed to the position two weeks ago “on acting capacity”.
“He was appointed acting ambassador-at-large to facilitate the opening of the Papua New Guinea office (embassy),” Mr Wise said.
“He was appointed upon my recommendation to the Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka to help on the process to do things in a very transparent manner because he was the former ambassador to PNG before they closed.
“He’s got a good relationship with the people of PNG, the government of PNG so that he can easily facilitate — so that we can put this thing through the normal budget process because we need funds to be considered by the Ministry of Finance in funding the reopening of the embassies.”
During a visit to Fiji in February, PNG Prime Minister James Marape had confirmed the allocation of a piece of land in Port Moresby for the Fiji Government to build a Fiji mission.
To reciprocate the offer, the Fiji Government also confirmed the allocation of land in Muanikau to facilitate a PNG chancery.
Mr Rabuka had also confirmed after that bilateral meeting that a non-resident ambassador would be appointed to facilitate the development of Fiji’s mission in PNG.
