Seventy ambassadors from all regions of the world, including members of the Security Council, the President of the Group of 77 and China, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand attended the Fiji Day celebration in New York.

Fijian diplomats headed by Peter Thomson, Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the UN, hosted a luncheon for the invited guests.

In his address, Mr Thomson expressed Fiji’s thanks for the solidarity the international community had given Fiji at the United Nations during the years in which Fiji’s 2013 Constitution was being formulated.

He said the solidarity and the faith shown in Fiji had now been consummated by the holding of free and fair Parliamentary elections in Fiji last month.

Diplomats applauded the news of the declaration of Fiji’s newly-elected Prime Minister, that regardless of political affiliations, the Government of Fiji was an inclusive one that would govern for all Fijians.

He gave particular thanks to the Pacific Small Island Developing States at the United Nations.

“They had stood together and taken a corordinated approach leading to the changing of the name of the Asian Group at the United Nations to the Asia-Pacific Group,” he said.

Mr Thomson paid particular homage to the peacekeepers of the UN serving in such trouble-spots as the Middle East and the Ebola-afflicted countries of West Africa. Giving special thanks for the safe return of Fiji’s 45 UNDOF hostages, Mr Thomson reminded the diplomats present that the world’s tribute due to men and women serving in blue helmets at fraught front lines of the world must be ever-present in the halls of the UN.

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