Officials unable to say if nuclear subs will dock in Fiji

The Ministry of Public Works could not say whether Fiji would allow Australian nuclear submarines to dock at its ports in future.

The issue came up during a Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence hearing last Friday on the Fiji-Australia Vuvale Union treaty.

Committee Deputy Chairperson Rinesh Sharma linked the treaty to Australia's AUKUS security pact with the United States and United Kingdom.

He asked permanent secretary Paula Baleilevuka directly.

"Would Fiji be seeing nuclear subs docking at our ports? In time to come," Mr Sharma asked, noting Australia planned to build its own nuclear submarines by 2040.

Mr Baleilevuka said the ministry had no answer.

"The ministry don't have any response to that," he said. "We have no response at this stage to that."

Mr Sharma said Fiji needed to think ahead rather than wait for consequences to arrive.

"We should be able to forecast rather than sitting there and waiting for the wave to hit us," he said.

MP Virendra Lal raised a separate concern. He said cybersecurity standards under the treaty may force Fiji to buy digital equipment only from Australia.

This, he said, raised questions about sovereignty over technology choices.

Mr Baleilevuka said dispute questions should go to the Solicitor General's Office. He said technology standard queries were better suited for the ministry responsible for IT.

Mr Sharma said the exchanges showed a lack of coordination between ministries on treaty matters affecting the country.