New Zealand and Fiji have signed a defense agreement to enhance military training and maritime security, that comes amid rising tensions over security in the region.
The agreement, signed yesterday in Suva by New Zealand Minister of Defence Andrew Little and Fijian Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration Pio Tikoduadua, sets a legal framework for military cooperation between the countries in each other’s territories. The agreement would also address disaster and humanitarian response coordination, and the challenges of climate change.
Little said that the deal “reflects the value New Zealand places on our relationship with Fiji,” adding that it was important for the two militaries to work together more effectively.
Photo: AFP
It comes as the US, New Zealand and Australia push to build stronger security ties with Pacific nations, as they attempt to offer an alternative to China’s growing influence in the region. Last month the US and Papua New Guinea signed a defense and maritime cooperation agreement.
Last year, the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, but Beijing failed to secure a broader regional security deal.
“Beijing’s success in signing the China-Solomon Islands security deal last year has kind of put a chill on other Pacific Island nations doing the same, especially if not balanced by deals with Australia, New Zealand or the United States,” said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the US think tank RAND Corporation.
Last week, Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka signaled the country’s intention to shift away from a policing agreement reached with China more than a decade ago, that had been suspended since he came into office in January.
During a visit to Wellington, Rabuka said the 2011 agreement was under review.
“If our systems and our values differ, what cooperation can we get from them? We need to look at that again before we decide whether we go back to it, or if we continue the way that we have in the past by cooperating with those who have similar democratic values and systems,” Rabuka reportedly said in Wellington last week.
Under the policing agreement, China provided training as well as supplies to support Fijian police forces.
Donations from China to Fiji included anti-riot gear, traffic command vehicles, office equipment, radio communication equipment, fiberglass, rubber boats for rescue operations and other materials.
Police officers from China were deployed to Fiji on attachment programs for periods of three to six months, the Fijian police force said in 2021, although it was not immediately clear where they were stationed.
In 2018, a small group of Fijian police officers were also trained in China on drug-trafficking cases, Chinese state media reported.
Fiji’s move toward canceling its policing agreement with China was in part due to a desire to “prioritize working with like-minded democratic nations like New Zealand and Australia,” Grossman said.
He added that the Fiji-New Zealand defense deal “will allow Kiwi forces to add capacity to Fiji and expose Suva to new technologies and enhance interoperability.”
Samantha Custer, director of policy at the University of William and Mary’s AidData China Research program, said that Fiji’s moves to distance itself from Beijing might have wider repercussions in the region.
“The buyer’s remorse we see playing out in Fiji right now may spread to other parts of the region in future as countries rethink the trade-offs of their security cooperation agreements and training with the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” she said.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS