Fiji’s first Foreign Policy White Paper was launched by Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sitiveni Rabuka at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva yesterday.
He said Fiji could make peace and security in our neighbourhood and the broader Indo-Pacific region.
“The white paper reaffirms the central position of the Pacific region in our foreign policy calculations,” he said.
“It makes clear that in all we do in foreign policy, we will put the Pacific family first.
“This is a headline document. It is not a checklist of all we are doing in our foreign policy. Nor is it a catalogue of all our bilateral and multilateral relationships and activities.
“Instead, it sets out the underlying principles of Fiji’s foreign policy, our overarching objectives, our broad priorities, and the way in which domestic and foreign policies are closely intertwined.
“It is a narrative of where we wish to go and how to get there,” he said.
The PM said the test of a nation’s foreign policy was in its ability to recognise change and adapt to it.
“The old liberal international order, from which Fiji was beneficiary, and which saw an unprecedented level of global cooperation and economic interdependence, is gone.”
He highlighted that in its place was a complicated competition for primacy between the US and China, which played out most sharply in our Indo-Pacific region.
