This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to deepen development ties with Fiji and support Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s plan for an “ocean of peace,” as the Pacific leader finished a 10-day visit to the Asian superpower before attending a major regional forum next week.
Fiji’s relations with China have cooled under Rabuka, who reset a police cooperation agreement with Beijing earlier this year in what was a significant blow to Chinese security interests in the South Pacific.
Beijing has hosted several Pacific Island leaders in recent months, including Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai, Nauruan President David Adeang and Solomon Islands leader Jeremiah Manele.
Rabuka met with Xi in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People after touring the economic hubs of Zhejiang and Fujian and observing poverty alleviation efforts in Yunnan province.
“China is ready to help Fiji and other Pacific island countries cope with climate change, and strengthen development cooperation with them to make the Pacific Ocean an ocean of peace, friendship and cooperation,” Xi said, according to a report Tuesday by state news agency Xinhua.
Rabuka, who led two coups in Fiji in the late 1980s, has called for Pacific island nations to declare their ocean territories a “zone of peace” as the United States and China jostle for influence in the region. A formal declaration will be considered at the upcoming Pacific Island Forum (PIF) leaders meeting in Tonga next week.
Rabuka said that Fiji was ready to learn from China’s experience and keen to increase collaboration in poverty reduction, infrastructure and connectivity, Xinhua said.
On Sunday, Rabuka held talks with China’s No. 2 official Premier Li Qiang. The two leaders said they were committed to deepening cooperation in trade, infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries and tourism, according to a statement from the Chinese government.
China said it was ready to import more goods from Fiji and boost foreign investment in the country. Rabuka and Li witnessed the signing of cooperation documents on trade and infrastructure construction, though no details were provided.
A statement released by the Fijian foreign ministry said that Rabuka had highlighted Suva’s desire for China to help “transform the country’s infrastructure in the years ahead.”
Earlier this week, the Fijian government announced it would develop a Chinese language program to teach Mandarin, Chinese culture and values in Fijian schools.
Rabuka had been due to take part in a PIF fact-finding mission to New Caledonia after leaving China, but the trip was deferred amid reports of disagreement between the territory’s pro-independence governing coalition and Paris. Finding a long-lasting solution to unrest in New Caledonia will be high on the agenda at the 53rd PIF leaders forum.
The world’s second biggest economy has become an increasingly important trade, investment and aid partner to Fiji.
Fiji was the first Pacific island country to establish diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China and its strategic location at the center of the South Pacific has made it a focus for Beijing’s diplomatic efforts in the region.
Beijing’s relations with Fiji burgeoned in particular after Australia, New Zealand and other countries sought to punish it for Frank Bainimarama’s 2006 coup that ousted the elected government.
In 2011 under Bainimarama, the two countries struck a police cooperation agreement that allowed Chinese officers to be deployed in Fiji and China donated equipment and surveillance technology such as drones.
But the agreement was put under review by Rabuka in 2023 and a decision was made this year to scap short-term deployments of Chinese officers and curtail intelligence sharing.
