{"id":1777,"date":"2019-09-17T11:12:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T11:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=1777"},"modified":"2019-10-11T11:16:41","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T11:16:41","slug":"fijis-pm-frank-bainimarama-warns-australia-needs-to-be-more-than-good-mates-to-the-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=1777","title":{"rendered":"Fiji&#8217;s PM Frank Bainimarama warns Australia needs to be &#8216;more than good mates&#8217; to the Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"gf\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1778\" srcset=\"http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Fiji&#8217;s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has warned Australia must do more if it wants a stronger relationship with the Pacific, as the two countries signed a partnership agreement covering economic, security, and community ties.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bainimarama and Prime Minister Scott Morrison signed the Vuvale Partnership in Canberra on Monday, as the pair met for a formal bilateral meeting.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vuvale&#8221; means &#8220;family&#8221; in Fijian, with Mr Morrison regularly referring to &#8220;family&#8221; when describing the relationship between Australia and Fiji.<br \/>\nBut Mr Bainimarama said the relationship between the governments had not yet reached that level.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For Fijians, the bonds that bind families together are sacred, unbreakable connections,&#8221; he said.[It] demands a level of understanding hereto [sic] unprecedented in the relations between our governments.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Fijian PM&#8217;s comments come amid Mr Morrison&#8217;s attempts to shore up Australia&#8217;s influence in the region to counter China&#8217;s growing presence in the Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>However, Mr Morrison&#8217;s pledge to &#8220;step up&#8221; Australia&#8217;s engagement with the Pacific floundered at a meeting of Pacific leaders in Tuvalu last month.<br \/>\nSource: ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fiji&#8217;s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has warned Australia must do more if it wants a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[17,21,13,5,33,2],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg",700,467,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg",640,427,false],"large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg",700,467,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg",700,467,false],"enternews-featured":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg",700,467,false],"enternews-medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg",700,467,false],"enternews-thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/gf.jpg",472,315,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?cat=4\" rel=\"category\">Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1779,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777\/revisions\/1779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}