Fiji the regional hub
IN his seminal work, The Geography of International Relations 2014 by Professor Saul Bernard Cohen on classified states in the international system based on military power, economic strength, and global influence into first order states major powers.
The second order states is regional powers and third, fourth and fifth level states whose reach and influence are limited to their immediate subregion.
He made no mention of small island states such as Fiji and other Pacific Island countries. However, he created a distinct category called ‘gateway states’. These are states which are small in area and population and frequently lie across international transportation routes.
They may also have natural and human resources and other attractions which make them strategically and economically very important. Mr Cohen cited Singapore, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Qatar, Dubai, Trinidad and the Bahamas as examples.
Fiji can be added to this category of ‘gateway states’ because it is actively functioning as a vital gateway to the Pacific Islands region, and across it, through air and sea transportation, for trade and natural resources, tourism, and diplomacy. Fiji itself is fully aware that for its own economic survival and prosperity, it must play an active role in maintaining close relations with all countries in the wider Asia/Pacific region and beyond.
Fiji's best policy and strategy is to build and strengthen relations with all states and not allow other countries with vested interests to tell us who our friends should be. This paper now examines the various core interests Fiji is actively pursuing in its foreign policy of being friends with all countries.
Diplomatic and economic relations
With a population of less than one million, Fiji cannot rely on its economic growth and prosperity in domestic consumption. It must export as much commodity goods as possible and fully develop its vital service industries such as tourism. All big countries in the Asia/Pacific region are crucially important and explains why Fiji maintains diplomatic embassies in such countries as New Zealand, Australia, the US, Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and PNG. These countries have reciprocated by establishing diplomatic embassies in Fiji.
Smaller island countries in the region such as Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia have established and maintain resident embassies in Fiji, recognising the value of Fiji’s role as a gateway state and as the centre of regional diplomacy.
Fiji has resident embassies in Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. Through these embassies Fiji provides assistance to other Pacific Island countries when needed by them.
Trade
Consider these trade statistics shown for October 2017. The following countries were markets for 72.6 per cent of Fiji's total exports for that month;
United Kingdom $34,779 (sugar); Australia $23,271 (gold);
US $22,011 (artesian water);
Japan $12,366; and
NZ $5,236.
The following were the major source of imports totalling 71.2 per cent of all imports into Fiji in October 2017;
Singapore $103,579;
NZ $74,241;
China $65,247;
Australia $63,183; and
South Korea $25,004
(Source: Fiji Bureau of Statistics)
Tourist visitors — source markets
Consider the sources of these tourist arrivals into Fiji during the 12 months period September 2016 to October 2017;
Australia 363,581;
NZ 182,613;
USA 79,876;
Canada 12,649;
UK 16,967;
Continental Europe 33,990;
Japan 6546;
China 49,161;
South Korea 8861;
Rest of Asia 24,022;
Pacific Islands 52,721;
Others 4523; and
Total 835,510.
(Source: Fiji Bureau of Statistics) All these export and import trade figures, and tourist visitor market sources, are evidence that Fiji cannot survive economically unless it maintains strong relations with all these countries.
Fiji as a regional hub
For the Pacific Islands region, Fiji has provided an important historical leadership role in the development of regionalism through institutionalised cooperation. Fiji with PNG, led the push within the South Pacific Commission in 1965 for the Pacific island countries to speak for themselves and no longer through their colonial administering powers. This reform movement eventually led to what is the Pacific Community today. Fiji also led the move to create a new regional body where Pacific Island leaders could freely discuss all issues of concern to them. Supported by other island countries and their leaders such as Tonga, Samoa, Nauru, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Niue and the Cook Islands, this collective movement resulted in the founding of the Pacific Islands Forum in 1972.
Regional leader at United Nations and other international fora
As the first Pacific Island country to set up a resident diplomatic mission in New York after joining the United Nations in 1970, Fiji assisted other Pacific Island states that followed in establishing their own missions and in co-ordinating their common positions on international issues that come before the UN, such as climate change, sea level rise, marine and oceanic pollution. Fiji's elections to high positions such as chair of the Group of 77 plus China, president of the General Assembly, and president of COP 23 which met in Germany, reflected the confidence of regional countries and the international community as a whole in Fiji's role and leadership in international affairs.
Another leadership and supportive role played by Fiji for and on behalf of Pacific Island states was in the inter-regional trade and development negotiations between the European Community/Union and developing states from Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). This led to the signing of the first Lome Convention in 1975 and its successor treaties. ACP and EU partnership gave Fiji the most remunerative market for its vitally important sugar industry from 1975 to 2017 inclusive. This included a guaranteed market for 170,000 tones of sugar every year and at a guaranteed price well above the world free sugar market price.
UN peacekeeping
Finally, Fiji again set the initiative for other Pacific Island states in contributing to UN peacekeeping operations, starting in 1978. Since then, Fiji peacekeepers have served in Angola, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liberia, Sinai, Namibia, Solomon Islands, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan and Timor-Leste.
All these have created enormous international goodwill for Fiji despite its smallness and its distant location here in the South Pacific.
According to the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Fiji peacekeepers and civilians from Fiji who have emigrated to other countries, or are working overseas on private contracts, have become a crucial source of foreign exchange to Fiji's national economy through personal savings remitted by them.
The Reserve Bank of Fiji estimated that from 2010 to 2012, personal remittances to Fiji averaged around $297.2m a year. Since then, remittances have increased to new levels, reaching close to $491.7m in 2015. The Reserve Bank says that personal remittances are very significant to Fiji's economy in that they supplement household incomes especially in times of extraordinary hardships such as following cyclones and other natural disasters, as well as being a major source of foreign exchange.
Conclusion
From the above account, one can conclude that by its active engagement in promoting regional cooperation within the South Pacific, pursuing its trade, tourism and wider economic interests in the wider Asia-Pacific region, and taking part in international affairs through the UN, Fiji fully recognises that it must itself be proactive in developing and strengthening mutually beneficial relations with all States. We simply cannot afford to resign ourselves to accepting that in global strategic terms Fiji may not be that important. For Fiji, our country's economic prosperity and the wellbeing of our people demands that we must adopt a pro-active stance in the international arena.