The newly appointed high commissioner designate of New Zealand, Dr James Kember, yesterday presented his credentials to President James Michel at State House.

President Michel and Dr Kember held talks after the accreditation before New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully paid a courtesy call on the head of State.

Speaking to the press, Minister for Foreign Affairs Jean-Paul Adam said the visit of Mr McCully has allowed development experiences of the Pacific and Indian oceans to be shared.

Mr McCully is on his first official visit to Seychelles and bilateral discussions have been held, which will strengthen the relations between the two countries.

Mr Adam added that discussions have been held in a number of areas of interests in terms of bilateral cooperation.

These include fisheries, whereby management of large expanse of water is an area where the two countries can cooperate.

Agriculture and other areas where New Zealand can share its technical expertise such as renewable energy were also part of the discussions.

Mr McCully said he welcomes the opportunity on behalf of the Pacific region to build stronger links with this region.
He added that issues that the Pacific region confronts are very similar and may even be identical to that of our region.

Mr McCully also attended the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea (Aims) sub-regional grouping preparatory meeting held at Kempinski hotel yesterday morning.

The meeting forms part of the preparatory process for the third international conference on small islands developing states (Sids) due to be held next year in Samoa.

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