New strategy puts Fiji’s coastal security first

Fiji’s new Maritime Security Strategy 2026-2035 will prioritise maritime security within 12 nautical miles of the coast, acknowledging that the country’s vast ocean area is too large to patrol in its entirety.

The Strategy, endorsed by Cabinet and developed with support from the United Nations Development Programme and the United Kingdom Government, says Fiji’s 1.28 million square kilometre ocean “far exceeds current and planned future patrol, surveillance, and interdiction capacity”.

Fiji will prioritise protecting its internal waters, archipelagic waters and territorial sea.

As its capabilities grow, the country will extend its focus to the contiguous zone, which reaches 24 nautical miles from the coast. However, the Government must formally declare the zone before enforcement powers can be exercised there.

The Strategy says this focus “does not diminish Fiji’s sovereign rights” over the wider Exclusive Economic Zone, including action against illegal fishing.

Drug trafficking is identified as “a defining operational challenge”, with the estimated street value of drugs landed in Fiji put at more than $4 billion.

The threat was highlighted in January when Police, working with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, seized 2.64 tonnes of cocaine at Vatia, near Tavua.

Police valued the drugs at more than $1.1 billion.

In his foreword, Minister for Defence and Veterans Affairs Pio Tikoduadua said the Strategy provides Fiji, for the first time, with “a comprehensive and integrated framework to safeguard our maritime domain”.

He added that “maritime security is a shared responsibility”.

The Strategy says more than 76 per cent of Fijians live within five kilometres of the coast, while more than 96 per cent of the country’s trade travels by sea.