Fiji, Chad establish diplomatic ties

Fiji and Chad have established diplomatic relations, the Fijian government announced Saturday.

At a ceremony earlier this week at the Permanent Mission of Chad to the United Nations in New York, the United States, Peter Thomson, Fiji's permanent representative to the UN and his Chadian counterpart Cherif Mahamat Zene signed a joint communique establishing diplomatic relations between the two nations, according to Fiji's Department of Information.

"The communique conveys the agreement of both States for their diplomatic relations to be guided by mutual willingness to develop and strengthen friendship and cooperation in diplomatic, political, economic, cultural, scientific and humanitarian fields, and for relations to be conducted in accordance with the objectives and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations," the department said in a statement.

Following the ceremony, the two ambassadors held talks on areas of common interest between their two countries and areas of cooperation at the UN, agreeing to work closely on climate change issues, including the challenges of desertification facing Sahel countries such as Chad, and the realities of rising sea levels confronting small island countries such as Fiji.

In line with the Look North policy, Fiji has been expanding its diplomatic ties across the globe. To date, the Pacific island country has established diplomatic relations with over 170 countries in the world, statistics show. Endi