THE Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) celebrated 25 years of existence on Monday at the University of the South Pacific's (USP) Laucala campus in Suva.
Fiji, which is a member of the MSG, hosted the chief guest and former Papua New Guinea (PNG) prime minister Sir Michael Somare, Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama and USP's vice-chancellor Prof Rajesh Chandra.
Speaking at the event, Sir Michael said the MSG had come a long way and he hoped the the group continued to improve.
"The special Silver Jubilee celebrations offers an opportune time to reflect on where MSG has come from as an organisation, take stock of what we have done, or equally important what we have not done," Sir Michael said.
He said the group would begin to asses the emerging challenges as well as chart the future of the MSG given the experiences they had come through.
"The MSG has come a long way from its humble beginnings 25 years ago in Goroka, Papua New Guinea. We should all feel rightly proud of our achievements since then.
"Fiji is an appropriate place to discuss matters of regional and sub-regional co-operation. We owe it to the people of Melanesia to keep MSG relevant," he said.
The celebrations included a traditional Fijian welcome and items by students of USP.