Fiji to open embassy in Jerusalem, becoming 7th country to do so
FM Sa’ar hails Pacific nation ‘for its historic decision,’ after Fijian premier told him last week of plan to move diplomatic mission
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Fiji has decided to open an embassy in Jerusalem, the Pacific country’s Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.
“Necessary risk assessments will be undertaken by the [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] and the Ministry of Defence, in consultation with relevant agencies, prior to and during the establishment process,” wrote the Fijian Foreign Ministry on X.
Currently, six countries have embassies in Jerusalem — the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay.
Last week in Munich, Fiji’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sitinevi Rabuka told Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar that he will bring to his government this week his proposal to move the Fijian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, according to Sa’ar’s office.
“I commend the Republic of Fiji’s government for its historic decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” Sa’ar wrote on X.
In 2023, Rabuka told Israel’s Ambassador Roi Rosenblit: “My personal feeling is that Jerusalem should be the location of our new Fiji embassy, but I will have to sell this to our coalition partners.”
Rabuka came to power in late 2022 as the head of a three-party government that includes the right-wing Christian Sodelpa party, one of whose leader’s demands was that Fiji open an embassy in Jerusalem.
Fiji’s decision on the embassy followed a decades-long campaign by the Jerusalem-based International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, which preaches support for Israel at churches across the Southern Pacific.
