24 September 2013, New York: Fijian Prime Minister Josaia V.
Bainimarama met today with His Excellency Hassan Rouhani, the President
of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran currently holds the Presidency of
the Non Aligned Movement with its 120 Member States, while Fiji holds
the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China with its 132 Member
States.
President Rouhani and Prime Minister Bainimarama discussed the
challenges and opportunities of presiding over such a large group of
countries, and how the two groups can fully play their part in current
global peace, security, social and economic situations.
President Rouhani stressed that solutions are needed for the instability
being experienced in the Middle East, including in Syria, and expressed
his hope that groups like the Non Aligned Movement would be able to
bring to bear some influence on lasting peaceful solutions, while
recognising the large and diverse nature of such Groups.
President Rouhani wished Prime Minister Bainimarama the best for his
tenure as Chair of the G77, and assured him of Iran's support in this
regard.
Prime Minister Bainimarama explained that Fiji's commitment to assisting
peace and security in the Middle East came from its long participation
in UN Peacekeeping Missions, most recently through deploying over 500
personnel to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in
the Golan Heights.
He said this followed on from Fiji's past participation in UNIFIL in
Lebanon, and current participation in UNAMI in Iraq and the MFO in the
Sinai.
President Rouhani assured Iran's support to Fiji's peacekeepers as part
of these UN Missions, and expressed the hope that in each of the
countries where Fiji serves in the Middle East, lasting peaceful
solutions can be obtained, as it has been many years since these places
have had to rely on UN peacekeeping for stability.
Finally, Prime Minister Bainimarama and President Rouhani discussed
bilateral ties between Iran and Fiji, which were formalised on 30 August
2012 in Tehran.
Both expressed their desire to promote and enhance bilateral ties,
including in the areas of tourism and the sugar industry. They tasked
their respective Ministers of Foreign Affairs to follow up on bilateral
ties between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Fiji.
-Ends-
Fiji PM Voreqe Bainimarama and Vanuatu PM, Moana Kalosil
Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama met in New York on
Tuesday with the Prime Minister of Vanuatu Moana Carcasses Kalosil to
sign a Memorandum of Understanding on development cooperation. The MOU essentially articulates the desire of both countries to
strengthen their relations through co-operation on a number of key
areas.
“Fiji and Vanuatu share development aspirations and challenges, and
agreements such as the one we have signed today allow for collective and
innovative solutions to be developed, drawing on best practices from
each of our countries,” said Commodore Bainimarama.
The memorandum of understanding on cooperation which was signed today
encompasses a broad range of issues including: bilateral trade and
investment; education, youth and human resource development; labour
mobility; immigration; commerce, retail and taxation; Fisheries
Cooperation; air and sea transportation; health and pharmaceutical;
climate change, environment, security and energy; and livestock
development.
Fiji Foreign Affairs Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola and Georgian Foreign Minister, Dr Maia Panjikidze (Source: MoI)
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ratu
Inoke Kubuabola met today with the Foreign Minister of Georgia, Dr Maia
Panjikidze to discuss ways and means of intensifying relations between
the two countries, given the growing developments in their relations in
recent past.
Fiji and Georgia formally established diplomatic relations on 29 March
2010. Since then, Fiji has continued to receive delegations from
Georgia. In November 2011, Georgia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Grigol Vashadze arrived with his delegation. Early last year, a
delegation from the Ministry of Education in Georgia came to donate Net
Books to schools around Fiji.
The two Ministers also had the opportunity to discuss the need to
formalize a Development Cooperation Agreement between the two countries.
This would strengthen their relations in the various fields of mutual
cooperation. At the moment, Georgia has shown its interest to assist
Fiji in the areas of Policing, Civil Service and Anti-corruption.
Minister Kubuabola thanked Minister Panjikidze for the assistance
extended by the Georgian Government to Fiji in the various areas of
cooperation, including scholarships provided to 6 of our medical
students as well as the provision of Net Books to schools around Fiji.
Georgia’s Embassy in Canberra is accredited to Fiji.
Fiji Foreign Miinister and Ukraine Foreign Minister, Leonid Kozhara (MoI)
The Republic of Fiji and the Ukraine formalised their diplomatic
relations at a ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters in New York
today within the margins of the Leaders week of the 68th Session of the
United Nations General Assembly.
Fiji’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ratu
Inoke Kubuabola, and his counterpart H.E Leonid Kozhara signed a joint
communiqué establishing relations between the two States.
The communiqué expressed the desire of the Republic of Fiji and Ukraine
to establish their relations in accordance with the provisions of the
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and guided by the principles
and purposes of the United Nations Charter and international law. The
communiqué calls for the promotion and strengthening of bonds of
friendship and cooperation between Ukraine and Fiji in political,
economic, cultural, humanitarian and other fields.
Following the formalisation ceremony, Minister Kubuabola and Minister
Kozhara held talks on areas of common interest between the two countries
and assured each other of mutual support of their Missions in the
furtherance of common causes in multilateral affairs.
The 43rd Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Cook Islands has been hyped as a much anticipated affair, not so much about the agenda, but more so about the invited guests-some with a higher profile than others.
In a press briefing, PIF General Secretary, Neori Slade, admonished the journalists covering the PIF:
“So if you can concentrate without getting too hyper on personalities (like US secretary of state Hillary Clinton) I think we’ll appreciate it.”
Slade also mentioned that ,the journalists should not be sidetracked about the major powers attending the Forum and adroitly maneuvered the conversation to the prepared talking points of the PIF agenda.
An important consideration, is that, the major power players attending the PIF did not travel thousands of miles to the Cook Islands, to chat about the dangers of climate change or just to exchange diplomatic niceties.
It is about furthering their own interests and maintaining their spheres of influence.
Steven Ratuva, a Pacific affairs specialist at Auckland University, expressed his opinion with Pacific Scoop regarding the current affairs: " [T]he US was trying to establish dominance in the Forum this year was because China had a strong foothold with the MSG, a powerful body in terms of its political power within the Forum, particularly through funding of infrastructure and supporting MSG operations.”
Graham Davis latest posting on Grubsheet, illustrated the undulated diplomatic landscape:
Hilary Clinton, who is making the first visit to a Forum summit by a US Secretary of State. Clinton knows that Fiji is too big to be ignored, too strategically important to be sidelined and that it’s high time its isolation was ended. This is almost certain to be the last time Bainimarama is excluded as America works this week to persuade its ANZUS partners, in particular, to bring him in from the cold.
There is no doubt that, the intransigent policies from Canberra and Wellington in isolating Fiji has resoundingly failed, and under girded their own shortcomings.
Ratuva added:
“[I]n spite of being suspended from the Forum, Fiji has some cards falling its way[...]Instead of weakening Fiji’s position, the suspension is actually strengthening it.”
Unquestionably, Fiji's suspension from PIF has opened up alternative channels of diplomatic exchanges, that invariably makes the PIF inextricably, obsolete.
In an opinion piece
in the The Australian, Michael O'Keefe, addressed the challenges to the PIF: "[The Pacific Islands Forum] will either forge a new path for the region's pre-eminent institution or give ground to the alternative architecture that has grown since Fiji's suspension from participation."
Ratuva addressed the benefits of the 'free agent' status of Fiji's diplomacy:
“[...]Fiji can do anything, it can mobilise its ‘alternative forum’ outside the Forum, and it has also strengthened the Melanesian Spearhead Group, because now the MSG is keeping tightly close as a group because they came around through Fiji’s support.”
Davis points out the waning relevance of the PIF:
Clinton knows that the Pacific Forum is a shadow of its former self so long as Fiji is excluded. Why? Because no Pacific plan of action can realistically be implemented without the country’s participation. It is too significant and too influential to be bypassed. It has also successfully defied all attempts by its bigger southern neighbours -Australia and NZ – to bring it to heel and has demonstrated a nimble dexterity to find support wherever it can.
O'Keefe added to the narrative of failed policies of isolating Fiji:
The rise of alternative forms of regionalism is a direct result of Fiji's suspension and poses the largest challenge to Australia[...]Fiji has made new friends and opened up new avenues of co-operation and as Australia chooses to re-engage it will be operating in a vastly different Pacific seascape. In this climate the continuing relevance of the PIF will need to be demonstrated rather than simply asserted. Fiji is not likely to accept the status quo and may need to be encouraged to resume its engagement with PIF.
Among Fiji's alternative diplomatic engagements, is their attendance to the Non-Alignment -Movement (NAM) Summit
in Tehran; currently in session.
Analysis of NAM group. (video posted below)
This 120 member group of countries, include notable members of the BRICS,
have come of age and are quietly overshadowing the Western bloc of countries, in terms of influence in shaping World affairs. NAM accounts for 14% of the World's GDP.
There are three NAM Pacific island nations: Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, who are also members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).
NAM policies are diametrically opposite to that of the ANZUS alliance, with respect to Non-Interference. Australia and New Zealand's role in Pax-Americana have eroded any perception of being a honest broker in the Pacific region. Notwithstanding, the tainted colonial history of the Trans-Tasman cousins, further compounds this .
This diplomatic coalescing of MSG and NAM principles in Pacific affairs, would represent a significant threat to the interests and influence of the Trans-Tasman countries in the region.
There appears to be a similar situation of failed isolation policies affecting both Fiji and Iran. In both cases, Western aligned countries have attempted to isolate them.
In both cases, each have been recently elected to chair the important nation groups-MSG and NAM respectively. The policies and its architects, have since demonstrably been rejected. Without a doubt, these series of diplomatic Faux Pas in the Western Alliance, underscores their demise of influence.
In discussions with Metropolitan neighbors and the Island diplomats, the stakes in the Pacific are simply undermentioned; but the leverage the Islanders wield are widely understood.
Post-Script:
Fars News: Iran to establish diplomatic ties with Fiji.
