PM RABUKA’S REMARKS AT THE CEREMONY FOR THE HANDOVER OF 14 PROTECTED MOBILITY VEHICLES

27/07/2024


  • The High Commissioner of Australia to Fiji and Special Envoy for the Pacific and Regional Affairs, Your Excellency Ewen Macdonald;
  • Chief of the Australia Defence Force, Admiral David Johnston;
  • Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration, Hon. Pio Tikoduadua;
  • The Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, Major General Jone Kalouniwai;
  • Distinguished Guests & Ladies & Gentlemen.
 
  1. Ni sa Bula Vinaka, and a very good afternoon to you all.
  2. I would like to extend a warm welcome to the Australian High Commissioner to Fiji and Special Envoy for the Pacific and Regional Affairs, Your Excellency Ewen Macdonald.
  3.  
  4. I would also like to warmly welcome the new Chief of the Defence Force of Australia, Admiral David Johnston. Congratulations on your new appointment. 
  5.  
  6. It is an honour to welcome you Admiral Johnston, in what I understand, is your first international visit in your new role.
  7.  
  8. It is most fitting to welcome you Admiral Johnston at the Blackrock Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief Camp, a facility you yourself opened in your last visit here in 2022.
  9. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Vuvale Partnership between Fiji and Australia has significantly strengthened our enduring and robust relations in the realm of defence and security.
  10.  
  11. It represents the deep bonds shared between Fiji and Australia.
  12. “Vuvale” means “Family” in Vosa Vakaviti and so the partnership recognises our respect for each other.
  13.  
  14. The Prime Minister of Australia Hon. Albanese and I signed the renewed and updated Vuvale Partnership on 20th October 2023.
  15.  
  16. The renewed Vuvale Partnership elevates our shared commitment to tackling climate change and strengthening our economic and trade partnership. 
 
  1. It also has an increased focus on human development, First Nations' peoples and culture, skills development and cyber security.
  2.  
  3. Five pillars provide the bedrock for our commitment to pass down to the next generation a partnership they will be proud to inherit.
  4.  
  5. Two pillars are relevant to today’s significant event:
  • Pillar 3 on enhancing our security cooperation to meet common challenges and maintain a peaceful, prosperous and resilient region; and
  • Pillar 4 - building our cooperation on international and regional issues, as we safeguard our region as a zone of peace against a changing climate and geostrategic contest, representing the Pacific and its interests on the world stage
 
  1. Peace and security are fundamental for sustainable development.
  2. Fiji will continue to uphold global peace and security as we have done for the last four and a half decades.
  3.  
  4. Our peacekeepers are present in six UN missions contributing to the search for peace.
  5.  
  6. After we signed the elevated Vuvale Partnership last October, I visited the 8th and 9th Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment at Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane.
  7.  
  8. We were given a  guided tour of the facility and had the opportunity to experience an operational demonstration in the field inside the bushmasters.
 
  1. At this juncture, please allow me to express my gratitude to the Government of Australia for supporting our acquisition of fourteen (14) Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles.
  2.  
  3. I wish to also thank Admiral Johnston for being here today to handover the 14 United Nations Variant of the Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles.
  4. With these 14 Bushmasters, we have significantly bolstered our capacity to contribute to global peace and security.
  5.  
  6. The Bushmasters will help ensure the safety of our peacekeepers and enable them to continue their valuable contributions to world peace.
  7. These Bushmasters ensure we meet UN deployment requirements and will prepare a new Fijian deployable UN Standby Company, here at RFMF Headquarters Joint Task Force Command at Blackrock Camp.
  8.  
  9. This will ensure Fiji is ready for international and regional peacekeeping missions now and in the future.
 
  1. The Bushmasters will support peacekeeping training for our security forces and can be utilised for international and regional peacekeeping missions.
  2. It is also timely to reflect on the humanitarian component of this Blackrock Camp.
  3.  
  4. The increasingly frequent and severe effects of climate change will continue to impact Pacific national and regional security, in complex and sometimes unpredictable ways.
 
  1. Over the next 6 - 12 months, increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters are highly likely to result in a greater requirement for humanitarian and disaster relief across the Pacific.
  2.  
  3. Our Fijian and Australian humanitarian and military planners have been operationalizing the Pacific Response Group concept.
  4.  
  5. This concept, agreed by Ministers at the South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting last year, will support Pacific Defence Forces to assist in Pacific responses to humanitarian crises.
  6.  
  7. This is central to the proposal or concept of the “Ocean of Peace.”
  8. We must recognize that common Pacific challenges require collective Pacific responses.
  9.  
  10. I proposed the concept to fellow Pacific Forum Leaders at our meeting in Aitutaki, Rarotonga last year, and the concept paper will be presented at the Annual Leaders Meeting in Tonga next month.
  11.  
  12. The “Ocean of Peace” is consistent with existing Forum instruments, including, the Rarotonga Treaty, the Biketawa Declaration and the Boe Declaration.
  13.  
  14. We must continue to work together as a region to find avenues for collective action.
  15.  
  16. It is through partnerships like the one we are recognizing today with Australia that we will achieve a safe, secure, and prosperous Fiji and a safe and prosperous region for all.
  17.  
  18. On behalf of the Government and people of Fiji, I formally accept the 14 Bushmaster PMV’s for Fiji
  19. Vinaka Vakalevu