Australia and Fiji signed a new bilateral defence alliance on Monday in a second major diplomatic win within a year for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese against Chinese influence in the South Pacific.
Albanese and his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka signed the Ocean of Peace Alliance in Fiji’s capital Suva.
They also signed an economic treaty, the Vuvale Union, under which Australia will invest more than 1 billion Australian dollars (€606 million) in its island neighbour over a decade.
The alliance is Fiji’s first mutual defence treaty. It is Australia’s fourth, following a treaty with the United States and New Zealand signed in 1951 and the bilateral treaty signed with Papua New Guinea last year.
“The Ocean of Peace Alliance introduces a mutual defence obligation and there’s no higher obligation than to come to each other’s aid at a time of need,” Albanese told reporters.
