Fiji pivoting back to ‘well-established’ partners Australia and New Zealand by axing China security deal

PM Sitiveni Rabuka said Chinese state security personnel would no longer continue working with its police force due to their ‘different systems’

But officers from Australia and New Zealand could remain in the country because their systems were similar to Fiji’s, the PM told a local paper

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Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka recenlty cancelled a police training exchange agreement with China because their ‘systems are different’. Photo: Xinhua/File

Published: 8:30am, 2 Feb 2023

Fiji’s cancellation of its police training and exchange agreement with China is an attempt by the country’s new leadership to revamp its public services and overturn previous administration decisions, analysts said.

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka last week said Chinese state security personnel would no longer work in his country’s police force because “our systems are different”. The move put an end to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in 2011 between the force and China’s Ministry of Public Security.

“Our system of democracy and justice systems are different so we will go back to those that have similar systems with us,” Rabuka had told The Fiji Times, adding that officers from countries such as Australia and New Zealand would stay because their systems were similar to Fiji’s.

Rabuka took office on December 24 after a coalition of parties narrowly voted to install him as leader.

Under the 2011 agreement, Fijian officers received training in China while Chinese officers were stationed in Fiji on three to six-month deployments. The MOU was signed by Rabuka’s predecessor Frank Bainimarama who served as prime minister from 2007 to 2022.

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