Wilkie misses out on top Forum job
Deciding votes for the top job were reserved for the end of the day. Forum Leaders agreed to appoint Tuiloma Neroni Slade as the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Pacific Island leaders met all day at a retreat in Niue yesterday, the second day of the 39th Pacific Leaders Forum in Alofi, Niue.
The announcement was made by the Forum Chair, Hon. Toke Talagi to a reluctant press audience last night after media waited almost 12 hours to receive the Forum Communiqué. The Forum Communiqué is a key indicator to what Pacific Island Forum leaders are discussing at regional and national level and how to strive to achieve and or implement Seated next to him during the press conference was brave faced acting Secretary General, Feleti Teo. He was one of three shortlisted for the job, along with Cook Islands’ Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wilkie Rasmussen.
Feleti Teo is a former Director General of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA). Prior to that he served as the Attorney General for Tuvalu. For six years Teo was based in Honiara at the Forum Fisheries, before taking up the position at the secretariat. He has an LLM from the Australian National University in Canberra and has an extensive knowledge of regional issues.
Wilkie Rasmussen, currently Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration and Chair of the Pacific ACP Trade Ministers, also missed out on nailing the job.
The chair would not elaborate on reasons that influenced the final decision, but to say;
“I think it was just quality of the candidature, and let me just say that all the candidates were of a very high calibre it’s not a real easy decision for leaders to make but that was the decision that was made...it was his experience and merit”.
Tuiloma Neroni Slade is the former Attorney-General of Samoa, and has served as the ambassador to Samoa and Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Perhaps one of his most noted merits is his former appointment as Judge to the International Criminal Court based in The Hague in The Netherlands. Adding to his track record, he formerly chaired the Alliance of Small Islands States.
Slade takes up the reins of the late Greg Urwin of Australia who held the post since 2003. Due to ill health, he resigned from his position as Secretary General in March earlier this year.
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