A New Zealand naval ship will be deployed to Fiji to help tackle illegal fishing in the region.
New Zealand's Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee met his Fijian counterpart, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, at a South Pacific defence ministers' meeting in Auckland on Thursday to discuss issues including maritime surveillance.
He said an inshore patrol vessel will be deployed to Fiji for six months in May to combat the widespread problem.
According to Mr Brownlee, the increase in illegal fishing vessels from Vietnam, also known as "blue boats", required counter-action.
Massey University defence lecturer, Anna Powles, says the decision is a welcome surprise.
Military personnel offload aid supplies in Fiji after Cyclone Winston.
Photo: New Zealand Defence Force
Transcript
ANNA POWLES: I think it definitely shows the degree to which the New Zealand Fiji relationship has developed since the restoration of ties in 2014. So it is a surprising development but I think it is timely and goes to show how much work is being done behind the scenes to make this kind of partnership happen.
DON WISEMAN: Do you think there will be a universal welcome for the boat in Fiji?
AP: Absolutely. Given how welcomed the New Zealand response following Cyclone Winston was certainly by the Fijian public there was an enormous amount of appreciation and support for what New Zealand and other partners, Australia and so forth did to support the Fijian people during that time. So certainly at that level there will be strong support. I imagine also this would not have happened if there was not strong support throughout government and defence as well.
DW: The boat is going up there for fisheries surveillance operations. Of course the area New Zealand is covering is a lot bigger than the exclusive economic zone of Fiji. There are a lot of other countries. Would you expect New Zealand to be sending additional boats or is this going to be a boat that will be covering Samoa, Tonga and so on?
AP: I think it would be hard pressed for this particular boat to cover Samoa and Tonga and other countries as well. I think it will be interesting to see how this develops. I imagine the first instance will be to assess the problem the enormity of it. Which we already have a fairly good idea about anyway. And then softly, softly to increase if New Zealand is capable of doing so, increasing deployments to assist in maritime surveillance. But also in other areas like transnational crime as well given the transnational threat across the maritime domain in the Pacific. This calls for more than one inshore vessel to do that it is a far bigger job. But certainly in terms of our relationship with Fiji offering one inshore vessel and crew to work in the space for six months is a cautious slow approach to rebuilding ties. With the particularly difficult history that we have had, recent history.
DW: Now Mr Brownlee has made mention of the threat from the so called blue boats from Vietnam that are coming to the Pacific and fishing for beche-de-mer. Now they have been in the Western Melanesian countries. They haven't got as far as Fiji yet or we hadn't heard that what do you know about how far across the Pacific these blue boats are getting?
AP: Well certainly I heard of them cropping up in Vanuatu waters, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands recently as well so through the South West Pacific. We hadn't heard of them cropping up in Fiji yet but it speaks to a broader issue which is already very much at play around resource security. The need for increased maritime surveillance and if this is an example of where Fiji and New Zealand are taking the lead in this to try and address these issue then I that is very positive. The extent of the problem at the moment is obviously something which needs more investigation and that ties into the transnational crime element as well.
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