Australia to Sign Fiji Security Pact and Advance Uranium Export Deal with India
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is scheduled to travel to Fiji on Monday to sign the “Vuvale Union” security agreement with Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. The agreement is reported to potentially match the scope of Australia’s mutual defence treaty with Papua New Guinea, which is set to take effect this week, and builds on a security partnership first established in 2019 as well as recent defence, policing and security pacts with Pacific nations such as Tuvalu, Nauru and Indonesia.
Later in the same week, Albanese is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Melbourne, where the two leaders aim to finalise a uranium export agreement. Both sides have resolved outstanding technical issues concerning nuclear non‑proliferation safeguards, clearing the path for Australia, which holds some of the world’s largest uranium reserves, to supply uranium to India for its expanding civilian nuclear power programme.
The twin agreements are presented as part of Canberra’s broader strategy to deepen strategic and economic ties with key Indo‑Pacific partners amid intensifying regional competition with China and heightened concerns over energy security.