Fiji’s military leader Voreqe Bainimarama wants to ditch traditional ties with Australia, New Zealand and the US, and align his Pacific Island nation with China, it was reported yesterday.
Speaking to Fijivillage News Web site during a visit to China, the self-appointed prime minister said China was the one country that understands the reforms he is trying to implement.
Bainimarama has had a fractious relationship with his neighbors since seizing power in a 2006 coup. Fiji has been suspended from the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth and has been hit with sanctions by Australia, New Zealand and the US as well as the EU.
Bainimarama said he was prepared to trade with Australia and New Zealand, but at a political level it made more sense to align with China.
China “is the only nation that can help assist Fiji in its reforms because of the way the Chinese think. They think outside the box. What they want to do they do, they are visionary in what they do,” he told the Web site.
“I think we need to forget about the [Pacific] Forum, about Australia and New Zealand. Let’s maintain the trade but forget about the politics,” he said.
He said Fiji needed to take advantage of its “understanding” with China to see how Beijing can assist with Fiji’s development.
“We need infrastructure, we need water, we need electricity. Australia and New Zealand and America, none of those nations are going to provide that. We know that now because of their policies towards us so let’s forget about these nations,” he said.
Since the 2006 coup, Bainimarama has ignored demands for an immediate return to democratic elections. His response has been to tear up the Constitution, sack the judiciary and tighten media controls, saying he wants to reform the voting system and develop a new constitution before returning to democracy.
He also told a recent meeting of Pacific island delegates that they need to “break the shackles” of their colonial past.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS