New Analysis: Fiji, New Zealand eye reinventing ties amid differences

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key wrapped up Friday his two-day official visit to Fiji, where the two neighbors agreed on reinventing diplomatic ties and entering a new era.

SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP & POSITIVITY

Key, onboard a military aircraft and accompanied by New Zealand officials and journalists, arrived Thursday afternoon local time to kick start the first ever visit to Fiji by an incumbent New Zealand Prime Minister in a decade, extensively welcomed by Fijians.

Speaking at a joint press conference Friday with Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, Key said both leaders have been working together on Cyclone Winston recovery, a double-tax agreement, a trade agreement and a seasonal workers scheme during the half-hour bilateral talk held earlier in the day.

"I am here to reset the relationship so that we can go forward together under the spirit of great friendship and positivity," Key said.

New Zealand is willing to reinvent its diplomatic ties with Fiji, Key said.

"As I said to the Prime Minister (Bainimarama), I didn't come to Fiji to reiterate the issues of the last ten years, I came to Fiji to demonstrate actively that New Zealand wants to progress the relationship, that there's a great deal we could and should be doing together, and New Zealand is utterly committed to the Fijian relationship," Key told reporters.

According to Key, the purpose of his visit is to build a solid platform for the future between New Zealand and Fiji.

PIF STALEMATE

Diplomatic ties between Fiji and New Zealand soured after the 2006 coup, which Bainimarama calls a "revolution" intended to end ethnic inequality and to create a common identity and equal citizenry.

After the 2006 incident, New Zealand, together with a number of western allies, slapped a range of bilateral and multilateral sanctions against Fiji. The sanctions were lifted after Fiji's 2014 general election, where Bainimarama and his FijiFirst party gained popular support and won a landslide victory, which has been confirmed by international observers as credible.

However, when Fiji's suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) was lifted, Bainimarama started boycotting the forum, declining to attend its meetings, including one that was held in Papua New Guinea last September.

The Fijian prime minister has repeatedly said that he objects to Australia and New Zealand's "undue influence", which the two countries deny, and said he believes the PIF no longer serves the best interests of Pacific islands, and that he would not attend the forum until Australia and New Zealand become development partners rather than full members.

The Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF), whose full members do not include Australia or New Zealand and whose secretariat is also located in Suva, is seen by some to be competing with the PIF, which has been accused by Bainimarama as "dominated only by a few".

According to Radio New Zealand International (RNZ), at the talks Friday in Suva, Key told Bainimarama that New Zealand will not leave the PIF.

"Mr. Key says New Zealand has responsibilities across the Pacific and it takes those seriously and the forum (PIF) is the architecture used for that," RNZ reported.

"He (Key) says he thinks Mr. Bainimarama will return eventually as Fiji has engaged with the forum at a lower level," said the report, which did not include any remark from the Fijian prime minister.

AGREEING TO DISAGREE

On the issue of Fiji's blacklisting of some New Zealand journalists, the two prime ministers agreed to disagree.

At the official welcome banquet Thursday evening, Bainimarama underscored and explained his stance on the blacklisting.

"No-one who reports on events in Fiji fairly and in a balanced manner is excluded. Any journalist is free to criticize my government or me in an opinion piece or report criticism made by others in their news stories," Bainimarama said.

"But we cannot allow the willful propagation of false information that damages the national interest and undermines our vulnerable economy. And that is what has happened in the case of certain New Zealand journalists and others from Australia," he added.

No journalist from any other country has been banned from Fiji, the Fijian prime minister confirmed.

"New Zealand television ran footage of tanks in the streets of Suva when our military does not own any tanks. They had been interposed from other sources. A claim was made that Fijian children were starving and were eating grass. These are egregious examples of wilful bias and misreporting," Bainimarama underscored.

"We are saying to the news organizations that employ them: send someone else. Someone who respects the facts and the right of people to know the truth. Not some twisted concoction," the Fijian prime minister underscored.

LESS PRESCRIPTIVE

On the idea of reinventing the diplomatic ties and entering into a new era, Bainimarama agrees.

Before the Friday talk, Bainimarama told Key in his banquet speech that he was coming to the talk in "a genuine spirit of engagement".

A spirit of "letting bygones be bygones and setting our relationship and that of our nations on a new course," he said.

The "strains" and "irritants" that have marked Fiji's political relationship with New Zealand in recent years are a "textbook lesson" on how not to conduct friendly relations between neighboring governments, Bainimarama said.

"And I ask you and your government to work with us to create a better framework in which to conduct our affairs. Less prescriptive. More consultative. More understanding of the challenges we face," Bainimarama told Key. Endit