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Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has accused his Fijian counterpart, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, of lying to the Pacific Islands Forum about Fiji's political future.
He was responding to accusations by Commodore Bainimarama that Samoa joined forces with Australia and New Zealand at the most recent Forum meeting to pressure other small island states into supporting a deadline for Fiji to announce a return to democracy.
Malielegaoi has questioned whether the Fijian leader was in a clear state of mind when he made the criticism, and says Fiji has failed to inform other Pacific leaders of the truth about whether it plans to return to democratic rule.
"My initial reaction to the comments made by Commodore Bainimarama was one of complete surprise," he told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program.
"I thought that these comments reflected a leader who completely could not understand the issues that are emanating from the Forum, and his responsibility as a leader of another country to comply with the principles upon which the Forum was established."
Malielegaoi rejected Bainimarama’s decision for not attending the Forum meeting in Papua New Guinea reasoning he would co-ordinate the response to heavy flooding across Fiji.
Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum represented the interim PM.
"I think he (Bainimarama) is trying to find some stupid grounds to hide behind his own failure to honour his commitment," Malielegaoi said.
"He was deliberately lying to the forum, and when he sent the Attorney General, the Attorney General came and lied through his teeth to the Forum."
Malielegaoi rejected outright any suggestion that Samoa, or any other country, coerced smaller Pacific states into supporting a harder line against Fiji.
"No one was forcing Bainimarama," he said.
"We have taken a very restrained attitude up to now. When Bainimarama began to unleash those comments on Samoa, I think I have an obligation to respond.
"We are an independent country, many many years before Fiji became independent, and we did not arrive at that independence without expressing our very strong wish to the leaders of New Zealand at the time that we wanted independence."
