The Fiji Military Forces say
they have nothing to hide as far as upgrading their military hardware and equipment is concerned.
This follows the arrival yesterday of over 25 shipping container loads of brand new military equipment.
Today Acting, Army Commander, Rear Admiral, Viliame Naupoto cleared the air surrounding the shipment from Russia saying this is part of any normal military operation where regular upgrading of arms and ammunition has to be in line with the rapidly evolving global security environment.
As one of the smallest armies in the world, the RFMF’s global peacekeeping commitments also comes with huge demands.
And topping that list is the urgent need to have the latest and best military hardware at its disposal when keeping the peace in some of the worlds most troubled regions.
Our improving diplomatic ties with global super power Russia has resulted in this….a full shipment of brand new military equipment all the way from Russia.
“This weapons the priority is to use to change the weapons that our peacekeepers use . They are quite old, they suffer from wear and tear . The wagons that they use in Sinai are the same weapons they took in 1992 . They are really in bad shape so a priority we need to replace those weapons and also because of the fact that it is a different peace keeping environment now, more often now they need to be defending themselves so they need good weapon system just because of the peace keeping environment there,” said the Acting Army Commander, Rear Admiral, Viliame Naupoto.
The consignment consists of 25 containers carrying military ammunition and 2 large trucks.
According to the RFMF, the equipment is expected to be dispatched soon to our 968 peacekeepers serving abroad in war torn Sinai, Syria, Golan Heights, Iraq and Lebanon.
This is the outcome of a bilateral arrangement reached between the Fijian and the Russian government back in 2013.
“We are at the receiving end of that diplomacy and we are so thankful that this come at this time. It’s a big need for us to support , change our weapons – make sure that they use good weapons and then we will be looking at trying to provide good cover armored vehicles for our peacekeepers. Two of the priorities that I am looking at,” he added.
The RFMF says they cannot disclose exactly how many weapons have been supplied or their overall value.
” Its a mixture of small arms rifles , pistols and ammunition plus simulators – simulators where you can just go in and learn how to fire the weapons but instead of relay firing the real weapon -you just go through the simulator. It is much cheaper and we are so grateful of that one too plus we have two trucks too. Those trucks carry mobile workshops- very handy trucks for disaster relief also. They can drive through flooded areas etc so are glad to have those,” he added.
Naupoto has put to rest any fears of instability arguing there is nothing out of the ordinary with upgrading of aging military gear.
“There’s no secrecy around it really. It started last year and the discussions have been ongoing from last year. As I said, we procure weapons for example years ago from Korea K2 the rifles that we are using and we will go procure it but there is a process that you go through and we followed exactly those processes so there was nothing secret about it.”
“For those who are spreading those rumors that something is going to happen- I advise them to stop lying to the people. This is as i said, nothing out of the ordinary. I assure the people of the nation that everything is well. Our security situation is stable. This is nothing to do in a negative way to jeopardize what we have right now. Really this is providing tools to the soldiers and our tools are weapons – just making sure that are equipped properly,” said the Acting Army Commander, Rear Admiral, Viliame Naupoto
The Russian military is expected to arrive in February to officially hand over the military equipment to the RFMF.
That’s when our officers are also expected to undergo training on how to operate and maintain the donated military equipment.