NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta (left) and Fiji PM Sitiveni Rabuka in Nadi after the bilateral meeting on 16 March 2013. Photo: Fiji Government
New Zealand will provide a $NZ30 million financial assistance package to Fiji in a bid to strengthen relations between the two countries.
The new funding support was announced following a bilateral meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and the Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on Thursday in Nadi.
The package has been made available under the Duavata Partnership, a development agreement signed 12 months ago.
The New Zealand government will allocate $20 million to help Fiji build its climate resilience, as well as provide an additional NZ$10 million in general budget support to assist Fiji deliver on its social and economic development priorities.
The assistance demonstrated "New Zealand's unwavering support and commitment towards Fiji's national priorities", Rabuka said after the meeting in Fiji.
"On behalf of the Government and the people of Fiji, I convey my heartfelt appreciation to New Zealand for its continued support, which also includes finance for climate action initiatives and general budget support, which has been announced today," he said.
"Fiji and New Zealand are traditional partners, our friendship and cooperation continues to grow from strength to strength."
"We are more resolved now than ever to build a sustainable and stronger future for our people in Fiji, New Zealand, the Pacific and beyond," the Fijian leader added.
This was the first official visit by the New Zealand foreign minister since Fiji's coalition government came to power in December last year.
Bilateral meeting between the governments of NZ and Fiji in Nadi on 16 March 2023. Photo: Fiji Government
'New Zealand remains committed'
Mahuta said the discussions with Rabuka focused on both nations "areas of joint ambition; both in terms of our direct country-to-country cooperation, and as a unified Pacific whanau."
General budget support from NZ's International Development Cooperation programme was one of the ways it provided assistance that allowed partner countries to respond directly to their own development priorities, she said.
"We will now work with Fiji to determine governance arrangements for this budget support, as PM Rabuka's Government confirms how the support will be applied to their priorities."
She said "by allocating NZ$20 million in flexible climate finance to support Fiji to deliver on its own climate change priorities", Aotearoa was demonstrating its close connections with the country.
"New Zealand remains committed to doing its fair share in the global race to tackle climate change by assisting partner countries to protect lives, livelihoods and infrastructure from the impacts of climate change," she said.
"The investment enables us to support clean energy projects in developing countries and provide greater economic resilience to our region, by ensuring buildings are able to withstand more damaging storms, crops are resilient to droughts, floods and new pests, and communities are protected from sea level rise and storm surges."
The allocation of flexible climate finance for Fiji follows similar allocations of support for Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. The $20m has come out of the $NZ1.3 billion that the government pledged in 2021 to help tackle climate change in the region.
Aotearoa New Zealand wants its Pacific partners to be supported "to build climate resilience on their own terms," Mahuta said.
"We support building climate resilience at home and in our neighbourhood because the economic and people issues climate change presents to our partners have flow on effects for our people to people links and our own economic security."
"This is a central principle in the strategy that guides our climate finance investment: that we act as a genuine partner, in ways that lift ambition and magnify the impact of the action taken," she added.
Meanwhile, Mahuta also thanked Rabuka for the support Fiji provided through the deployment of 34 Fijian defence and emergency personnel to assist Cyclone Gabrielle recovery efforts in Aotearoa.