Chinese bases ‘not welcome’ in Pacific, says Fiji PM Sitiveni Rabuka

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says China should be blocked from establishing a military base in the region and backs Australia’s plan to recruit Fijians to the ADF.

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka addresses the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

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Fiji’s Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, has called on fellow Pacific leaders to resist Chinese efforts to establish a military base in the region as he backed Labor’s push to recruit Fijians to the Australian Defence Force and flagged a new bilateral treaty with Australia.

Amid surging efforts by China to expand its security footprint in the Pacific, the former coup leader said Beijing should not be allowed to secure a military outpost in the region.

“Who would welcome them? Not Fiji,” he told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday. Mr Rabuka – one of the region’s most senior leaders – threw his support behind the Albanese government’s plan to recruit Pacific Islanders into the ADF, which is short more than 5000 personnel.

He said Fijians, more than 1500 of whom were serving in the British Army, could fill “the whole lot”.

“I would like to see it happen,” Mr Rabuka said.

Declaring the region’s outlook “more uncertain than at any time since Fiji’s independence in 1970”, Mr Rabuka said it was time to step up his country’s “Vuvale” (family) partnership with Australia to “an agreement or treaty”.

He said a bilateral treaty, which was being strongly backed by the Albanese government, would help address “neglected areas of development” while placing the countries’ relationship above politics.

“It will not be subject to the political whims of the winning parties in the various elections because there will be national treaties between sovereign states,” Mr Rabuka said.

The former military strongman, who has long been concerned about China’s growing influence in the Pacific, laid out a plan for a Pacific “ocean of peace” based on unity and co-operation among the region’s states.

In a veiled swipe at Beijing, he said Fiji expected “those from outside to respect our approaches and participate with us”. He said this meant respecting the “Pacific way”, refraining from “coercion” and respecting the environment.

“Right now, we are having to cope with a China that is big, really big, and has gotten powerful, and would probably like to spread its influence to the Pacific,” he said. “The Pacific leaders in all the recent discussions have tried to go for policies that are friendly to all and enemy to none. It is a fairly tough call to steer. But is it possible? We need to hold hands. We need to encourage each other to be able to maintain that view.”

At the same time, he acknowledged China’s President Xi Jinping was a “great leader” for his country, lifting standards and economic development for his people.

Mr Rabuka’s comments follow Beijing’s failed push for a region-wide security pact, its controversial 2022 security agreement with Solomon Islands and its repeated attempts to do a similar deal with Papua New Guinea.

The Fijian Prime Minister is in Australia for a six-day visit with his defence, security and immigration ministers. He and Anthony Albanese will watch the country’s Flying Fijians rugby union team go up against the Wallabies on Sunday.

Anthony Albanese gives Mr Rabuka a back rub during the 2024 Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting in Nuku'alofa, Tonga. Picture: AAP

Mr Rabuka also will visit a company of Fijian soldiers taking part in Australia’s biggest military exercise, Talisman Sabre – his country’s biggest contingent yet to join the biennial war games.

The Fijian leader’s ringing endorsement of the ADF Pacific recruitment push comes as the Albanese government forges ahead with the plan.

Fiji and PNG are expected to be the first nations to take up the offer for their citizens to serve under the Australian flag.

While no timeframe has been given for the initiative, a senior government source told The Australian “it will happen”.

The government is working through legal and other issues, including whether Pacific recruits should have to become Australian citizens.

PNG has backed the plan but expressed concern that if its people had to become Australian citizens to serve in the ADF, they might never return home, depriving the nation of valuable skills acquired during their service.

Mr Rabuka said he was not concerned about Fijians coming home after serving in the ADF, declaring: “I am sure they will gravitate back to Fiji, where their pension from years of service in Australia will serve them very well.”

Fijians have served in the British Army for 64 years, earning a reputation for physical strength and an ingrained warrior ethos.

The Albanese government is looking at prioritising Pacific recruits for non-combat roles, such as trades and technical positions, which are more difficult to fill.

An Australia-Fiji treaty would mark yet another win for Australia in the Pacific after major treaties with Tuvalu and Nauru.

The Albanese government is also negotiating a treaty-level agreement with PNG that is expected to be signed when the Prime Minister visits Port Moresby for PNG’s 50th anniversary of independence in September.