Pacific / Fiji

Australia sells military vehicles to Fiji

13:50 pm on 10 February 2017

Australia has agreed to sell 10 refurbished military vehicles to Fiji.

Australia's defence minister Marise Payne said the Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles will be used to support Fiji's United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Middle East.

Ms Payne said the sale was a significant milestone in defence co-operation between Australia and Fiji, and underscores the importance of working with partners in the region.

Defence relations between the two were cut after Frank Bainimarama's coup in 2006, but they were restored in 2014 after Fiji held elections.

Last year, Fiji's military received a large shipment of weapons from Russia.

Ms Payne said the vehicles would be overhauled, serviced and repainted, before seven are deployed to the Golan Heights and Syria, and three sent to Fiji in the middle of this year.