Fiji’s military leader Voreqe Bainimarama wants to ditch traditional ties with Australia, New Zealand and the US, and align his Pacific Island nation with China, it was reported yesterday.
Speaking to Fijivillage News Web site during a visit to China, the self-appointed prime minister said China was the one country that understands the reforms he is trying to implement.
Bainimarama has had a fractious relationship with his neighbors since seizing power in a 2006 coup. Fiji has been suspended from the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth and has been hit with sanctions by Australia, New Zealand and the US as well as the EU.
Bainimarama said he was prepared to trade with Australia and New Zealand, but at a political level it made more sense to align with China.
China “is the only nation that can help assist Fiji in its reforms because of the way the Chinese think. They think outside the box. What they want to do they do, they are visionary in what they do,” he told the Web site.
“I think we need to forget about the [Pacific] Forum, about Australia and New Zealand. Let’s maintain the trade but forget about the politics,” he said.
He said Fiji needed to take advantage of its “understanding” with China to see how Beijing can assist with Fiji’s development.
“We need infrastructure, we need water, we need electricity. Australia and New Zealand and America, none of those nations are going to provide that. We know that now because of their policies towards us so let’s forget about these nations,” he said.
Since the 2006 coup, Bainimarama has ignored demands for an immediate return to democratic elections. His response has been to tear up the Constitution, sack the judiciary and tighten media controls, saying he wants to reform the voting system and develop a new constitution before returning to democracy.
He also told a recent meeting of Pacific island delegates that they need to “break the shackles” of their colonial past.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home