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Fiji Peacekeeping To Golan and Russian Support.

Fiji deployed troops to the UNDOF mission in Golan. Fiji also plans to increase its current troop levels via new recruit drives. Fiji's Land Force Commander Mosese Tikoitoga explained the rationale behind this, including the composition of deployments to United Nations and other Peacekeeping missions. Fiji's military and technical cooperation with Russia is discussed, along with some concerns with regards to the safety of Fiji troops.

Rethinking the South Pacific

Audio Source- Radio Australia: Pacific experts will gather to debate the need for Australia to shift its priorities when engaging with the region from security to development.
The argument is that our declining influence in the South Pacific comes at a time of progress, however small, in places like Timor-Leste, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and even Fiji, where long awaited elections are due to be held in 2014.

Fiji Draft Constituion - Brij Lal Objections

Whale in Fiji: Speaking with Leighton Smith

by Whaleoil on September 5, 2012
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2012/09/whale-in-fiji-speaking-with-leighton-smith/
I was in at NewstalkZB this morning and Leighton Smith grabbed me on the way past and we spoke for a few minutes on my observations in Fiji.
Have a listen to my observations on Fiji.

How Defense Austerity Will Test U.S. Strategy in Asia

Source: Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)
Michael Noonan, the director of FPRI’s program on national security, interviews FPRI Senior Fellow Michael Horowitz about his recent National Bureau of Asian Research piece entitled “How Defense Austerity Will Test U.S. Strategy in Asia.”
Horowitz discusses the potential impact that sequestration and defense austerity might have on U.S. defense policy in East Asia and also discusses the consequences of underfunding defense research and development in providing the necessary suite of security capabilities for the current and future operating environment -- particular one where anti-access/area denial (A2AD) will be an issue.
Moderated by Michael Noonan.
Program length: 15 minutes

China worries over US rebalancing to Asia and Australia's role.

Source: Radio Australia
China's former Ambassador to Australia says he hopes Canberra will change some of its policies relating to its biggest trading partner.



China worries over US rebalancing to Asia and Australia's role. (Credit: ABC)


Zhou Wenzhong, a former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs also served as Ambassador to Washington.
Mr Zhou says Australia's foreign investment laws should be more open while its stance on the US deployment in the Asia Pacific could be better explained.
In Sydney to mark 40 years of Australia-China relations, Mr Zhou spoke to Karon Snowdon who filed this report.
Correspondent: Karon Snowdon

Corbett Report Radio 202 – The Asia-Pacific Perspective with Broc West

Source: Corbett Report
Tonight we talk to Broc West, who runs the Asia-Pacific Perspective blog at ap-perspective.blogspot.com, about the latest developments in the Asia-Pacific region. Topics covered include the increasingly close US-Australian relationship, the Chinese-US tensions in the region, the Japan-China Senkaku Islands dispute, the Australian carbon tax and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Bohemian Grove, Bob Carr & Fiji's Beta Democracy

Unelected Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, was interviewed by Radio Australia regarding the upcoming meeting with his New Zealand, Fiji counterparts in Sydney on July 3oth 2012. In interview, Carr was hesitant to acknowledge Fiji's progress towards democracy and alluded to a more accelerated pace and would relax sanctions once an irreversible progress towards democracy has been attained.
It appears a scripted good cop-bad cop scenario has been mapped out.
New Zealand is acting out the good cop- recently investigating a conspiracy to assassinate Fiji's Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama involving  the fugitive and nemesis Roko Ului Mara, raided the homes of former SDL politician in New Zealand and softening the travel sanctions.
Playing the 'bad cop' -Bob Carr the Australian Foreign Minister's new tact of shifting of the proverbial goal posts towards the Utopian end of the democracy spectrum.
The planned meeting was to update the unelected Australian Foreign Minister on Fiji's progress towards democracy; since Carr was busy in secret talks with his handlers at the controversial Bohemian Grove that bans any female attendees . The irony of the unelected Bob Carr,  co-mingling with Henry Kissinger, Condoleeza Rice and other stalwarts of the same ilk is astonishing.