Draft Nadi Declaration Ready For Adoption: Tavola

The draft Nadi Declaration is ready to be adopted by the 3rd Leaders’ Summit of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) in its final session today, said Fiji’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade, Kaliopate Tavola.

Mr. Tavola said the draft Declaration will be put forward to the Summit and the Summit might adopt it with a few further changes, or with acclamation.

“As far as the joint council of ACP Ministers and Ministers of Foreign Affairs are concerned, we are happy with what we have done with the draft Declaration.”

Mr Tavola said the Declaration is similar to the Declarations of Libreville and Santo Domingo.

“It contains statements of intent on the part of the group on various issues such as how best they can address global issues, and deal with global summits such as the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa later this year.”

“It also touches on issues important to the ACP group particularly how well we approach the negotiations with the European Union under the Cotonou Agreement.”

Apart from the similarities in the issues contained in the draft Declaration, Mr. Tavola said what makes this document different from the other two is in the emphasis given to the various issues.

“For instance, debt was a major issue of concern to the group a few years ago and had featured prominently in the previous Declarations, but this time it does not feature as prominently.

“On the other hand, in the draft Nadi Declaration World Trade is an important issue, and this was not so important a few years ago.”

It is this shift in prominence of issues that Mr. Tavola said, was what sets the draft Nadi Declaration apart from the previous two Declarations.

He added that the draft Declaration is a statement of intent and is not a legally binding document.