President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau is in Australia to attend the 20th World AIDS Conference in Melbourne.
Ratu Epeli will speak at special sessions on the advancement and threat of the AIDS epidemic to mankind; and will meet with senior executives of the United Nations organization on AIDS (UNAIDS).
He will also co – chair the first plenary session on Monday with speaker Professor Salim Abdool Karim, who will address ‘State of the Art Epidemiology and Access’.
A government statement said the invitation of Ratu Epeli to the conference is on the back of the good work that he has undertaken as the UN AIDS Ambassador to Fiji and the Pacific.
Meanwhile delegates who arrived for the conference observed a minute of silence for about 100 of their colleagues who died in the Malaysian Airlines plane crash yesterday.
Among the passengers were former president of the International AIDS Society Joep (pro: Yop) Lange, a well-known researcher from the Netherlands, and World Health Organization spokesman Glenn Thomas, based in Geneva.
A precise number of passengers who were bound for the conference could not immediately be determined.
The 20th International AIDS conference starts tomorrow.
