‘India an important partner in Fiji’s effort to promote a peaceful & united Pacific region,’ said PM Rabuka in Delhi during his official visit to India.
According to MEA, a defence attaché will be posted at high commission in Suva, covering Pacific Island nations. The move follows talks between PM Modi & Fijian PM Sitiveni Rabuka.
The year was 1987 when Rabuka, then a Lt Col, had ousted the democratically elected government in his country. Two years on, Ambassador T P Sreenivasan was asked to leave.
With children as young as nine being treated for addiction, and with crime statistics and HIV and AIDS cases climbing dramatically, police have called for a state of emergency.
Four days before the 15 February start of the World Hindi Conference in Fiji, the Finance Ministry cut the number of officials on the Indian delegation list from 165 to 51.
Indentured labourers, or ‘girmitiyas’, were transported from British India to work on plantations in far-off countries that are now home to large ethnic Indian populations.
This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.
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