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Austin, on his 12th trip to the region as defence secretary, said negotiations had started on a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Fiji, which would enable the US to “deploy and redeploy forces in support of Fiji”.<\/p>\n
It would also “help us train with the Fijians on a very routine basis,” he said alongside Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in a press conference live-streamed from the city of Nadi, on Fiji’s main island Viti Levu.<\/p>\n
The US also pledged $4.9 million to support Fiji’s military modernisation and signed a bilateral logistics cooperation deal, according to a defence department statement.<\/p>\n
Austin’s visit to Fiji was the first by a US Secretary of Defense to the strategically located nation of around 1 million people, comprising an archipelago of 322 islands.<\/p>\n
It was the last stop on a trip that also took him to Australia, the Philippines and Laos.<\/p>\n
Rabuka said Fiji looked forward “to continuing to work closely with the United States going forward, including with the new incoming Trump administration”.<\/p>\n
Austin said the close US-Fiji relationship would “endure far beyond transition of administrations”.<\/p>\n
The high profile visit comes after Fiji this year agreed to maintain a policing co-operation deal with China, amid a tussle for influence between Beijing and Washington in the Asia-Pacific.<\/p>\n
MNA\/<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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