Australia Defrosts Relations With Fiji

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s official visit to Fiji in mid-January was primarily concerned with a bilateral reboot. There were, of course, initiatives to announce, but the main focus was the tone. Morrison was there to be positive, friendly, and enthusiastic, as Australia’s new calculations in the Pacific required him to put aside some of Canberra’s usual concerns.

No Australian prime minister had visited Fiji since John Howard attended the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) held in Suva in October 2006. Less than two months later, then-military commander Frank Bainimarama (now prime minister) overthrew the government. Due to a combination of Australia’s staunch promotion of democratic principles in the Pacific, and Bainimarama’s suspicion of Canberra’s influence in the region’s primary multilateral institution, the PIF (Fiji was suspended from the forum from 2009-2014), a frost between the two states emerged.

This led to Bainimarama seeking stronger relationships with other powers like China and Russia, fuelling greater concern in Australia. This concern has now morphed into a clear-eyed geopolitical realization, and rebuilding the relationship with Fiji is seen as of paramount importance. The primary component of this is an acceptance by Australia that Bainimarama is now a twice democratically elected prime minister, and that his previous acts in seizing power militarily will need to be forgotten in order for the relationship to be renewed.

While in Suva, Morrison delivered an address to the University of the South Pacific that focused heavily on the theme of Australia and Fiji as family. In Morrison’s words, “[T]o talk about vuvale [Fijian for family] is to go beyond diplomacy. It’s to talk about something deep and something rich, something that is very local, something that is very ‘home’ and something which connects peoples more than any words or any documents can.” In framing the relationship between the two countries as one of family, it allows the recent past to be understood as a sibling squabble. It may have created problems between the two, but those problems remained contained within an overarching bond of greater resilience, a bond that could always be returned to.

Consolidating this concept, Morrison and Bainimarama indicated that their respective governments would begin negotiations on a new bilateral arrangement, to be known as the Australia Fiji Vuvale Partnership Agreement. Morrison said that the two countries hope to sign the agreement when Bainimarama visits Australia later in the year (although Morrison himself will most likely be out of office by then, as Australia is set to hold general elections by May). It remains unknown exactly what new arrangements this agreement will focus on.

Of the tangible announcements that were made during Morrison’s trip, the redevelopment of Fiji’s Black Rock military base was the most notable. The redevelopment carries significant symbolic weight as Australia outbid China for the project. Australia’s offer was preferred due to it not only involving the development of the necessary infrastructure to expand the base’s operations, but also due to Canberra’s commitment to providing expertise and training to Fiji military and police forces. The base would also become a regional hub for the training of other Pacific Island security forces, increasing their interoperability with each other and Australia. Morrison and Bainimarama broke ground on the redevelopment during the Australian prime minister’s visit.

Keen to demonstrate a holistic approach to its renewed engagement with Fiji (and the wider Pacific), Morrison also pledged an AU$84 million (US$59.9 million) investment over six years to the University of the South Pacific, a university owned by 12 Pacific Island states that has its main campus in Suva, and the region’s most important tertiary institution. Beyond this, Australia is hoping to further boost it soft power footprint by providing providing 1,000 hours over three years of new television content from Australia’s commercial broadcasters to Pacific broadcasters (although with the questionable content of Australian commercial television networks this may instead have a detrimental effect). In a recent review of the ABC’s international broadcasting arm, Pacific leaders and citizens have expressed a desire for quality public interest journalism and educational programming. Reality TV shows and local dramas may not gain the desired traction (although for rugby-mad Fiji, increased sports content would).

Morrison’s trip was designed to reinforce the message that Australia is (now) taking the Pacific seriously, and attempted to reassert Australia’s influence, and its fraternity, with one of the region’s most important states. Canberra has obviously been spooked by Beijing’s increasing encroachment into what it considers its backyard. During Morrison’s address to the University of the South Pacific he proudly stated that in his short prime ministership he has “returned the Pacific in Australia’s outlook to where it always should have been be; front and center of Australia’s strategic outlook and foreign policy.” This is not a hollow boast, but it comes with a caveat: Australia’s action on climate change would give this statement greater weight. It will be up to subsequent prime ministers to acknowledge this in order to keep the family together.