Fiji is moving to close gaps exploited by drug traffickers and illegal fishing syndicates with the launch of the $120million Vuvale Maritime Essential Services Centre – the country’s biggest investment in maritime security in a generation.
Defence and Veteran Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua told Parliament the facility, funded under the Vuvale Partnership with Australia, would transform the way Fiji polices its 1.3 million square kilometre Exclusive Economic Zone and its wider 6.5 million sq km search-and-rescue region.
“For too long agencies acted in parallel, sometimes duplicating work, sometimes leaving gaps that were exploited by criminal syndicates,” Mr Tikoduadua said.
“The centre eliminates those silos and replaces them with a unity of effort.”
Opened in April and to be formally commissioned this Friday, the centre integrates the navy, police, Customs, immigration, fisheries and other agencies under one roof, enabling real-time intelligence sharing and coordinated enforcement.
Mr Tikoduadua said the centre was already intercepting suspicious vessels and supporting environmental protection, fisheries monitoring and border security.
“It is where intelligence becomes action, where surveillance becomes enforcement, and where Fiji asserts its sovereignty across a maritime space that is both vast and vital,” he said.
The facility will be officially handed over by Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in Suva, a move Mr Tikoduadua said symbolised both Fiji’s sovereignty and regional solidarity.
“This is not simply a building,” he said.
“It is the institutional heart of our surveillance and enforcement system, a commitment to protect our ocean for generations to come.”
