Foreign relations of Fiji

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.

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."

Australian reaction to foreigners' convictions for homosexuality

Then, 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.