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Fiji PM to make first official visit to New Zealand

Xinhua, October 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Fijian Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama will make an official visit to New Zealand this week, as the two countries continue to normalize relations.

Bainimarama will make his first official visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister from Oct. 19 to 23, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said in a statement Monday.

"New Zealand and Fiji have strong ties in a range of areas, and the Prime Minister's visit presents a further opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest," said Key.

In June, Key became the first New Zealand Prime Minister to visit Fiji in 10 years and held talks with Bainimarama.

Defence cooperation was formally resumed between the two military forces in late 2014, following a normalizing of relations.

The New Zealand Defence Force was heavily involved in the response to the Tropical Cyclone Winston, which struck Fiji in February, sending its biggest peacetime deployment to the Pacific, involving ships, aircraft and more than 500 personnel.

The cyclone killed at least 42 people, and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and other buildings.

Other Pacific nations imposed sanctions on Fiji after Bainimarama seized power in a military coup in 2006.

Relations thawed after elections in September 2014, when Bainimarama was elected Fiji's Prime Minister with about 60 percent of the vote. Endit