Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told Australian officials to press on with negotiations for a new bilateral security treaty with Fiji after sitting down with its prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, on the margins of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting.
The federal government was frustrated when it was unable to land a $500 million new agreement with Vanuatu during Mr Albanese's visit to the Pacific nation yesterday, although it remains bullish that it can secure the pact before too long.
And the government is still racing to expand ties with larger Pacific nations that seem less conflicted about drawing closer to Australia — particularly the current governments in both Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
Mr Rabuka first flagged a potential treaty with Australia on a visit to Canberra earlier this year, and at the opening of their meeting, Mr Albanese said the Fijian prime minister had recently written to him asking to kickstart negotiations.
"We are certainly up for it, and I think we should get our officials working together to make sure we take this important relationship to the next level," he said.
At a press conference later that day, Mr Albanese wouldn't be drawn on whether Australia would offer Fiji security guarantees to come to its aid in times of natural disaster or war, as it has with the much smaller Pacific nation of Tuvalu under the Falepili Union.
But he said that Australia was open to expanding defence ties, which "could range from increased interoperability, the sort of training that we are seeing with the Pacific Policing Initiative, being expanded to increased engagement between our defence forces".
Australia 'needs to support Pacific family' on climate
The prime minister also seemed incredulous when a reporter asked him about why he was travelling in a car provided by the Chinese embassy to help Solomon Islands run the PIF leaders meeting.
China and Australia both donated vehicles to Solomon Islands to help it run the event, with China gifting 27 cars to help ferry leaders — including Mr Albanese — around the capital.
"Seriously?" he asked.
"It's a car. Cars get you from A to B."
Mr Albanese also fielded questions about Australia's decision — which he reconfirmed today — to offer $100 million to the Pacific Resilience Facility, which is being officially ratified by Pacific leaders this afternoon.
He said climate change was a global challenge and Australia had a responsibility to help Pacific neighbours trying to deal with its impacts.
"Some people … argue we shouldn't do anything on climate change because Australia doesn't represent 100 per cent of global emissions," he said.
"There's a contradiction there. We need to be not just [taking] action ourselves, we need to encourage positive actions for others as well.
"And in the Pacific, we need to provide support for our Pacific family members."
