Russian Military are expected to be in the country next month to officially hand over the consignment of arms and ammunition to the Fiji Military Force.
Acting Commander Rear Admiral Viliame Naupoto said officers going for peacekeeping missions will also be trained with the donated equipment first.
25 shipping container loads of military equipment from Russia is a great boost for the Fiji Military Forces in its peacekeeping missions.
With official handover of the equipment by the Russians expected to be held next month, RFMF hopes to train its officers thoroughly before they go on a peacekeeping missions.
“Hopefully as soon as possible but as I said we need to learn, its new weapons we using different weapons right now its a mixture of Korean and American and it will take a bit of time to do the training ” said Naupoto
The Republic of Fiji Military Forces is now in the process of recruiting more officers before the next deployment in March.
“Right now we’re conducting a recruiting process hopefully we can take in 200 this time we will also see either midyear towards the end of the year where we need to run another recruitment. It’s an ageing force as you turn 55 you go out so we need to be getting people to come in as replacements”
Currently 968 Fijian peacekeepers are serving abroad in Sinai, Syria, Golan Heights, Iraq and Lebanon
“All in place now, they’ve completed their rotation so its new battalion sitting in our peacekeeping mission so by March we begin the rotation again and that is Sinai we begin to change people through to Sinai and then the other missions will follow ” said Naupoto