Fiji is being suspended from the Pacific Island Forum because of a refusal to call elections by today's deadline.
The 16-nation group has given Fiji several warnings it would happen, but Fiji and Cdre Frank Bainimarama remain defiant.
It was inevitable after breaking a promise to hold elections this year.
"I think we made it quite clear that will not happen," says Cdre Bainimarama. "There'll be no election until September 2014."
"If they don't want to have elections, they're not going to have them," says New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully. "If they want to wreck their economy they're going to. All the international community can do is say we're prepared to be patient, we'll be there when the time comes."
Bainimarama says the time is now, that he would welcome a face-to-face meeting with the New Zealand and Australian prime ministers, immediately
"If they are so willing to accept my explanations, I'd love to do that," says Cdre Bainimarama.
But Mr McCully says Bainimarama has made conciliatory offers before, only to retract them. He says foreign leaders have been burnt too many times.
"I don't imagine either Mr Rudd or Mr Key are rushing to clear their diaries."
John Key speaking on Radio Dunedin today clearly saw little point in talking.
"You've got a dictator up there now who just doesn't want to listen to anyone but himself," says Mr Key.
Emergency regulations put in place to control media reports were to end today, but will be extended instead.
"The emergency regulation was brought entirely for the media, censorship, to ensure that there's calm in the nation," says Cdre Bainimarama, "that there's no incitement."
Cdre Bainimarama says negative reporting is to blame for Fiji's economic woes.
"There seems to be a great deal of negative reporting around Fiji at the moment, and perhaps the commodore needs to ask himself whether there is a reason for that," says Mr McCully.
Fiji is officially suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum from midnight tonight, and the Commonwealth is expected to follow suit. In response to an attempt from Cdre Bainimarama to prevent suspension from the forum with an explanatory letter, Mr McCully says he admires his optimism.
3 News