SYDNEY (Reuters) – Pacific island nation Fiji said on Tuesday it will strengthen defence and security cooperation with Australia as Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka visited Canberra.
In a meeting with Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles, Rabuka said that evolving global security threats meant Australia and Fiji should strengthen cooperation in security intelligence, cyber security, defence and police cooperation, Fiji’s government said in a statement.
The two countries already work closely together on border and maritime security, and Australia had funded a security training camp in Fiji, Rabuka noted.
Rabuka is on a three-day official visit to Australia.
China struck policing agreements with Pacific Island neighbours Solomon Islands and Vanautu this year, however a decade-old policing agreement between China and Fiji had been put “on hold”, Rabuka confirmed in an interview with ABC Television, citing “the differences in our system of policing, investigations and our legal system”.
Marles will travel to South Korea on Wednesday and Japan on Thursday for defence ministers’ meetings, the Australian government said.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham and Alasadair Pal; editing by Robert Birsel)
