Tag: Rabuka, Sitiveni

What to Know About Australia’s Contest With China in the Pacific After Beijing Tested a Missile

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On the day that China announced that it had successfully fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia was in Suva, the capital of Fiji. Mr. Albanese was visiting the country on Monday to sign two long-sought security agreements with Fiji’s leader, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. A week earlier, he was smiling and shaking hands with the prime minister of Vanuatu, having finalized a treaty with that island nation. The following day, he was in the Solomon Islands, standing shoulder…

Fiji’s Leader Declines Invitation to China, Saying He Tripped and Fell

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Fiji’s uneasy relationship with China has hit an unusual roadblock, in the form of an office door. In a video posted to social media on Tuesday, the Pacific island nation’s prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, said he was declining an invitation to visit China this week because he had tripped while looking at his phone, striking his head on a door at the entrance to a government building. “I do not know whether my head is hurt more than the door, or the door hurt more than my head,” Mr. Rabuka…