Fijian military coup leader Frank Bainimarama would need to show solid progress toward restoring democracy before Australia and the EU would lift sanctions, Australian and EU ministers said yesterday.
Bainimarama has called for Australia and the EU to restore normal ties after his military-backed government on June 19 gave "in principle" backing for elections in Fiji by early 2009.
European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner discussed Fiji with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer during talks in Canberra on yesterday, with both saying it was too early to relax sanctions.
"The most important thing is to see whether the commitment will materialize," Ferrero-Waldner told reporters after talks with Downer.
The EU has said more than F$400 million (US$250 million) worth of aid to Fiji would be either delayed or put at risk because of Bainimarama's bloodless coup on Dec. 5 last year, when he seized power and toppled elected prime minister Laisenia Qarase.
This puts into doubt the EU's F$274 million support for Fiji's sugar industry between this year and 2013 to help it cope with lower world prices and modernization and designed to lower prices for Fiji sugar exports to Europe.
An ongoing suspension would be devastating for Fiji's vulnerable economy, which relies almost entirely on tourism and the traditional mainstay, sugar.
The Pacific island country's sugar industry is uneconomic at present low world sugar prices and greatly in need of reform, with laborers still cutting cane by hand using machetes.
Australia has also suspended part of its aid program to Fiji and imposed travel bans on Bainimarama and members of his government. Defense cooperation was also suspended.
Meanwhile, New Zealand will likely tighten travel restrictions on members of Fiji's military regime this week, following the expulsion of its ambassador to Suva, Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday.
Clark said the cabinet policy committee would discuss possible measures to be taken tomorrow, focussing "around the transit visa area."
Following last December's military coup, New Zealand banned regime officials and their families from visiting New Zealand. Clark's government is also considering banning them from travelling through New Zealand to other destinations.
She also said that the international community was waiting to see whether Fiji would fulfil its promise to restore democracy.
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