Fiji to overhaul peacekeeping role with new national strategy

Government is preparing to redefine the country’s decades-long commitment to global peacekeeping operations through the development of a National Peacekeeping Strategy, Defence and Veterans Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua told Parliament on Tuesday.

Delivering a ministerial statement on Fiji's peacekeeping efforts, Mr Tikoduadua said the strategy would provide a “serious, comprehensive, and forward-looking framework” to guide the future of Fiji’s peacekeeping efforts, with a focus on sustainability, relevance, and the wellbeing of personnel.

“These are not rhetorical questions. They are national questions,” he said.

“They go to the heart of what it means to be a responsible contributor to global peace.”

More than 50,000 Fijians have served in international peacekeeping missions since 1978, many in some of the world’s most volatile regions including Lebanon, the Golan Heights, Iraq, Darfur, and Timor-Leste. Fiji has also maintained a long-standing presence in the Sinai Peninsula under the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) mission — a post that began following the Camp David Accords.

However, with global conflicts evolving, the Minister said it was time to reassess whether the scale and nature of Fiji’s deployments still aligned with the country’s strategic priorities and resources.

“The world we live in today is not the world of 1978,” he said.

“Missions have become more complex, less defined, and often less supported.”

Mr Tikoduadua, a former peacekeeper himself, described the personal and professional toll deployments have taken on Fijian soldiers and their families — from long absences and strained marriages to grief and trauma.

“Peacekeeping changes you,” he said.

“Grief is sometimes carried alone. Joy is postponed until you return — and sometimes, you do not return at all.”

He paid tribute to Fijian peacekeepers who have lost their lives while serving abroad, saying their sacrifices “may not appear in history books, but are written into the moral architecture of this nation.”

The proposed National Peacekeeping Strategy will:

• Set clear criteria for selecting missions
• Redefine success in military, moral, and diplomatic terms
• Standardise training and preparedness
• Strengthen post-service care, family support, and reintegration
• Align peacekeeping efforts with national interest and capacity

The Minister also reflected on Fiji’s regional leadership through the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), saying it stood as a “testament” to what Pacific nations can achieve through solidarity and cultural awareness.

He rejected any suggestion that Fiji was “too small to matter” in global affairs.

“Our peacekeepers have proven otherwise,” he said. “They have shown that moral leadership is not the preserve of the powerful. It is the calling of the principled.”

He urged Parliament to support the government’s vision, not out of tradition, but with wisdom and intent.

“Let this House speak with one voice. Let us affirm not only the worth of our past contributions, but the wisdom to guide what comes next.”

The National Peacekeeping Strategy is currently being developed and is expected to shape how Fiji continues to engage in global and regional missions going forward.

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