By Anthony Bergin and Robin Nair
Although Julia Gillard is in election campaign mode, she has one international commitment that she might wish to keep.

Australia currently chairs the Pacific Islands Forum. The next of the forum's heads of government meetings is scheduled for the first week of next month in Vanuatu, where Australia will hand the chairmanship to Vanuatu.

While our Prime Minister may receive some criticism at home for leaving Australia during the campaign, it will be an opportunity to show her foreign affairs credentials in a region that is of central importance to Australia and one that values consultation and consensus-building in its approach to regional problems.

The Fiji issue would be a particular test of Gillard's negotiation skills. There's already discomfort among some island states about the suspension of Fiji from the forum and the often harsh rhetoric used to discuss the present leadership and political situation in Fiji. These countries are wary of further irritating or isolating the important island state.

Last week there was another episode of "stone-throwing" diplomacy over Fiji. Vanuatu's Prime Minster, Edward Natapei, the chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, a sub-regional body of only Melanesian countries, announced on the eve of the annual MSG leaders' summit in Fiji that the summit was being postponed indefinitely.

Natapei said this was the collective decision of the leaders of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, the FLNKS (New Caledonian nationalists) and Vanuatu. Fiji's pending acceptance of the MSG chairmanship risked long-term ramifications for the region with respect to "basic fundamental principles and values of democracy and good governance".

The claim that the meeting was cancelled out of concern for democracy in Fiji isn't entirely credible. The military has been in power in Fiji since 2006 without any reprimand from the Melanesian regional body. Fiji has participated in all MSG meetings since the coup as a full member. The MSG leaders agreed at its last meeting for Fiji to host the meeting without any preconditions.

The real problem was Australia and New Zealand's opposition to Fiji and Canberra's wish to deny the Bainimarama government legitimacy amongst Pacific Island countries. Fiji had invited some non-Melanesian Pacific Islands countries to attend, creating the so-called MSG Plus.

This was portrayed as an attempt by Frank Bainimarama to increase the importance of the MSG meeting, overshadowing the forthcoming Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Vanuatu.

After close consultation with all MSG countries, an invitation was extended by Fiji to other forum members, including Australia and New Zealand, to attend this week's meeting as observers.

Fiji is suspended from the forum. For the Fijian Prime Minister, an MSG Plus meeting would yield two opportunities.

First, he could use the meeting to create a wedge between Australia and the forum for their uncompromising stand against his government. Second, he could use the occasion to tell his side of the story to other island states, away from the prying eyes of Australia and New Zealand.

Australia's acting high commissioner to Fiji was expelled from Suva last week for her role in the Australian government's attempts to dissuade Pacific Island governments from holding the MSG meeting in Fiji or Fiji chairing the meeting.

But, diplomatic fallout aside, there has been little recognition of the fact that such actions might only serve to humiliate the Fijian people (who appear to be warming to Bainimarama's plan for "building a better Fiji") and raise the prospect of Fiji withdrawing from the Pacific Islands Forum altogether. This would be an unwelcome development for diplomatic relationships in the Pacific.

In any event, the MSG Plus meeting has been replaced with an "Engaging with the Pacific" meeting in Fiji that starts today.

The policies of the Howard and Rudd governments were uncompromising about returning Fiji to democracy, yet the "line in the sand" approach hasn't recognised the entrenched problems in Fiji.

There's now an opportunity for Australia to re-engage Fiji bilaterally rather than using its regional muscle to further isolate the Bainimarama government. After Australia hands over the chairmanship of the forum to Vanuatu next month, Australia should initiate a conversation as equals with Fiji.

If Gillard wants to apply her campaign slogan of Moving Forward to the Pacific, then a new dialogue with Fiji would be a good start. Her government could consider providing urgent development aid to assist Fiji's people in areas such as health, education, skills training and agriculture.

This would be a great contribution to the people of Fiji and to the stability of the region. The costs of such a program would be a fraction of our interventions in East Timor and Solomon Islands, and less than what we might incur in the worst-case scenario of a failed Fijian state.

In return, as in any negotiation, Australia would expect the Bainimarama government to offer some concessions.

Whoever wins next month's Australian election should appoint a Pacific Islands minister. Kevin Rudd failed to reappoint a parliamentary secretary for Pacific Island affairs after Duncan Kerr's resignation last September.

This would be a strong signal from an incoming Australian government that it takes our relationships with the region seriously.