Fiji Reconsiders Security Ties With China
At a time when geopolitical tensions in the Pacific are increasing, Fiji’s leader said on Wednesday that his country is reevaluating its security ties with China.
The controversial police cooperation deal that Fiji and China signed in 2011 that permitted Chinese police officers to be stationed there is currently being reviewed, according to Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.
At one point during a news conference in Wellington with his New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins, Rabuka appeared to go one step further by referring to Fiji’s “discontinuation” of the agreement.
“If our systems and our values differ, what cooperation can we get from them?” Rabuka said, referring to China.
“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.”
In 2013, Fiji increased the scope of its policing pact with China to include some military cooperation, but Rabuka avoided specifically mentioning that agreement on Wednesday.
China has previously stated that it hopes to keep working with Fiji because the security accords have helped Fiji.
Rabuka defeated Frank Bainimarama, who had ruled Fiji for 16 years, in a contentious election in December. Since then, Rabuka has taken steps to distance himself from certain of Bainimarama’s initiatives, such as those aimed at forging stronger connections with China.
Bainimarama, the former police commissioner who handled the Chinese policing arrangement, Sitiveni Qiliho, the former attorney general who was widely regarded as Bainimarama’s right-hand man, and others are now accused of abusing their positions of authority.
In recent years, the U.S. and China have intensified their struggle for dominance in the Pacific.
Papua New Guinea, which is strategically situated just north of Australia, and the United States recently signed a new security agreement. Additionally, the US has restarted volunteer recruitment for the Peace Corps and opened embassies in Tonga and the Solomon Islands.
A security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands was struck last year, prompting concern across the Pacific.
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