HC Deb 15 January 2002 vol 378 c133W
Mr. David Marshall

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when his Department's Ministers last officially visited Pacific Islands; and which ones. [R] [27154]

Mr. MacShane

My predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, West (Mr. Battle), visited the Pacific twice in 2000. He visited Papua New Guinea in June, and attended the annual Post-Forum Dialogue Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in Kiribati in October that year. While at the forum he had meetings with the Prime Ministers of Australia, New Zealand and Tonga, the President of Kiribati, the Foreign Ministers of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and with the Heads of the European Commission and French delegations. I plan to visit Pacific Islands later this year.