Rabuka presses UN rep over outstanding peacekeeping payments

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has urged the United Nations to settle outstanding peacekeeping reimbursements owed to Fiji, saying the unpaid funds could have been invested in critical infrastructure such as health, transport and education.

Mr Rabuka made the call after welcoming United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix during a traditional ceremony at Black Rock Camp in Votualevu, Nadi, on Saturday.

"It is very timely. It gives us an opportunity to see what we have at home in our capacity to keep abreast with developments and training," Mr Rabuka said.

"It is also an opportunity for me as Prime Minister to tell him about the impact and the burden of peacekeeping, particularly the financing of our contributions.

"The UN still owes us a few hundred million dollars, which could have gone into infrastructure development, particularly in health, transport and education."

Mr Lacroix said United Nations peacekeeping operations were confronting increasingly complex global challenges, including transnational crime, climate change, emerging technologies, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

"We now have more complex mandates and more complex situations," he said.

"You have the impact of transnational criminal activities, climate change and new technologies that create new threats to populations and peacekeepers. Drones, misinformation and disinformation are being weaponised through technology.

"We have to adapt to all of this, and we can only do it by working collectively with our troop- and police-contributing countries."

More women in peacekeeping

Mr Lacroix also commended Fiji's commitment to increasing the participation of women in peacekeeping operations.

"I am pleased to see Fiji's strong commitment to increasing the role and empowerment of women in peacekeeping," he said.

"UN peacekeeping is more effective when there are more women involved. We have seen this across all our operations.

"We want to see more women in leadership positions and across all functions in peacekeeping.

"We have made significant progress, with more women serving in uniformed units and command positions, but we want to do even more.

"For that, we need the continued support of Fiji, one of our most trusted troop- and police-contributing countries."