Reports of Nirj Deva receiving an official nomination from the Republic of Fiji Islands should be “disregarded,” or so suggests this official memo from Fiji’s Ambassdor to the UN.

According to the memo,

“The Government of the Republic of Fiji Islands has not officially informed the Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Fiji Islands to the United Nations regarding the nomination of any candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations.

…all correspondence purporting to have received Fiji’s nomination to this high post is to be disregarded.”  

According to the permanent mission, the letter cited by the Deva campaign was “a letter of support, not a nomination.”

In May, Deva claimed to have received “nominations” from France and Poland, when in fact, he was refering to letters of support from FORMER Foreign Ministers Rochard and Buzek. (Deva’s website now refers to these accurately as letters of support.) The difference this time is that the letter was sent by a sitting Foreign Minister, presumably with the authority to write to the President of the Security Council,

“I am writing to request you to add the name of Niranjan Deva-Aditya, Ambassador-at-Large of Sri Lanka to your list of Candidates.”

Is Fiji considering nominating Deva? It cannot be determined from the letter, but we can say with certainty that, at present, the position of the permanent mission is that Fiji has not nominated anyone to the high post. As noted in the Ambassador’s memo and confirmed by an official with the Foreign Ministry in Fiji, announcement of a nomination would be made by the Ambassador in New York, not directly by the Foreign Minister.

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