Foreign relations of Fiji
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Fiji maintains an independent, but generally pro-Western, foreign policy. It has traditionally had close relations with the United Kingdom, as well as with its major trading partners Australia and New Zealand. These relations cooled after both the 1987 and 2000 coups, and Fiji was suspended for a time from the Commonwealth of Nations, a grouping of mostly former British colonies. It was readmitted to the Commonwealth in late 2001, following the parliamentary election held to restore democracy in September that year. Other Pacific Island governments have generally been sympathetic to Fiji's internal political problems and have declined to take public positions.
Fiji became the 127th member of the United Nations on October 13, 1970, and participates actively in the organization. Fiji's contributions to UN peacekeeping are unique for a nation of its size. It maintains nearly 1,000 soldiers overseas in UN peacekeeping missions, mainly in the Middle East.
Since independence, Fiji has been a leader in the South Pacific region, and played a leading role in the formation of the South Pacific Forum.
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Diplomatic controversies
As of 2005, Fiji has become embroiled in a number of disagreements with other countries, including the United States, Australia, and China.
American criticisms of Fiji's human rights record
On 2 March 2005, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase strongly reacted to a U.S. State Department report criticizing Fiji for practicing racial discriminiation, and for the racial divide between Fiji's two main political parties, the United Fiji Party (mostly indigenous Fijian) and the Fiji Labour Party (mostly Indo-Fijian). "Fiji can make a similar report on the US on all those issues. Our report would be far worse than the US State Department's report on Fiji," he said. He went on to rebuke the United States for interfering in Fiji's "domestic affairs."
In an interview with the Fiji Times on 29 May 2005, America's outgoing Ambassador David Lyon renewed his country's criticism of Fijian policies by criticizing the Qarase government's proposed Reconciliation and Unity Commission. Lyon expressed concern that its provisions for amnesty for persons convicted of involvement in the coup d'etat that overthrew the elected government in 2000 would encourage further coups in the future. "If a democratic society doesn't make it clear that the violent over-throw of its elected leaders is a crime against that society, I have to think that it is inviting future upheaval," he said. He also condemned statements of public figures predicting coups if they, their party, or their race is not successful in the next parliamentary election, saying that such threats were "absolutely despicable in a free, democratic society" and constituted "the worst form of scaremongering."
Lyon said that the amnesty for perpetrators of the 1987 coups had been an error of judgement and had set a precedent which could negatively affect the future unless stopped now. He concurred with statements made by a number of Fijian politicians, including deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and Senator Adi Koila Nailatikau, that a coup culture had taken root in Fiji. He warned that tourism, which forms the mainstay of the Fijian economy, would be adversely impacted by any further instability. He believed, he said, that the Qarase government was sincere in its commitment to democracy, and acknowledged positive steps taken by the government to restore the rule of law. He added a word of caution, however: "All of these positive steps ... will vanish in an instant if there is another coup or sufficient political upheaval questioning the legitimacy of future elections."
Disagreements with Australia
On 13 April 2005, Qarase rejected criticism from Australia and some other countries over the prosecution and imprisonment of two foreigners charged with committing homosexual acts, which are illegal in Fiji, and said that other countries needed to respect Fiji's independence. Qarase said that as member of the United Nations, Fiji was as entitled as any other country to make its own laws as it saw fit.
Row with China over Taiwanese President's visit
A diplomatic row with China erupted on 5 May 2005, when Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian arrived for a private visit and was welcomed at a private function at Suva's Sheraton Resort by Vice-President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, Ratu Ovini Bokini (Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs), Senate President Taito Waqavakatoga and several other Senators and MPs, and several judges including Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki. Foreign Minister Kaliopate Tavola asserted that those who attended the welcoming ceremony did so "of their own accord," not as government representatives, and that Prime Minister Qarase's presence in the same hotel where President Chen was staying was purely "coincidental." Chinese Ambassador Cai Jin Biao rejected this explanation, and said that the visit was a violation of the One China Policy, to which Fiji had agreed when diplomatic relations were established in 1975, which would "sabotage relations between China and Fiji." He charged that Prime Minister Qarase and Foreign Minister Tavola had known of the upcoming visit for months. The embassy issued a further statement on 7 May, demanding that Fiji discontinue any effort to establish a dialogue with Taiwan.
The row escalated when, on 16 May, Health Minister Solomone Naivalu voted in support of Taiwan's bid to gain observer status at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. Naivalu had apparently done so on his own initiative, contrary to a government briefing, sparking a major public disagreement between himself and Foreign Minister Tavola. Jia Qinglin, chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), was dispatched to Fiji and met Prime Minister Qarase during a brief stopover on 21-22 May, a move that Tavola said was not coincidental. He said that Fiji could not afford to lose China, and that the government would ensure that "careless incidences" like Naivalu's vote in Geneva would not recur. Naivalu responded by saying that his vote was nothing new: "We always support Taiwan to get observer status every year," he said.
Relations with New Zealand
On 10 June 2005, Foreign Minister Tavola signed a Memorandum of Understanding with his New Zealand counterpart, Phil Goff, aimed at fostering cooperation in the fight against terrorism. Meanwhile, New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark announced that New Zealand would double its annual aid to Fiji, from NZ$4 million to NZ$8 million. Much of this aid, the Fijian government revealed, would be used for poverty alleviation and squatter resettlement.
Foreign reaction to Fijian legislation
- See main article: Reconciliation and Unity Commission (Fiji)
Australia and New Zealand have both expressed concern over legislation currently before the Fijian Parliament (as of June 2005), which proposes to establish a Reconciliation and Unity Commission, with the power (subject to presidential approval) to compensate victims and pardon persons convicted of crimes related to the coup d'état which deposed the elected government in 2000.
Diplomatic initiatives
Speaking at the 6th Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City on 23 May 2005, Isikia Savua, Fiji's Permanent Representative (Ambassador) to the United Nations, called for equal recognition of individual and collective rights in national and international policies. He said that Fiji had embodied both concepts in its Constitution, through such provisions as communal voting (giving each elector to vote for two members of the House of Representatives, one from his or her own ethnic group, and the other from any ethnic group).