Fiji’s government has launched the National Counter Terrorism Strategy 2026 to 2030, with Minister Naivalurua saying terrorism remains a possible threat despite the country’s current peaceful environment. FBC News, which reported the launch on 25 September, said Naivalurua told the event that Fiji cannot afford to wait for a threat to emerge before strengthening its national security response.
Key facts
- The strategy runs from 2026 to 2030 and is built around four areas: prevention, preparation, response and recovery, FBC News reported.
- Naivalurua said terrorism may be unlikely in the foreseeable future, but unlikely does not mean impossible, according to the broadcaster.
- He said the nature of the threat has changed, with radicalisation increasingly taking place online and extremist content able to spread rapidly.
- Violence can also come from individuals or small groups with little warning, he said.
- The government is also progressing the Counter Terrorism and Suppression of Terrorism Financing Bill, which Naivalurua said will strengthen Fiji’s legislative capacity.
- Counter-terrorism operations must remain grounded in the Constitution, the rule of law, human rights, due process and necessity, he said.
- FBC News’ report of the launch does not state a cost for the strategy, a lead implementing agency, or a date for the Bill.
Why it matters
What the minister committed the state to, on FBC News’ reporting of his remarks, is building capability in advance: people, systems and procedures in place before a crisis rather than after one. That is a different proposition from responding to an existing threat, and it is the argument Naivalurua made in place of one, telling the launch that complacency is not affordable.
He also drew a line on how that capability may be used. According to FBC News, Naivalurua said security measures cannot become a licence for discrimination or suspicion based on religion, race, village, language or belief, and that the fight against terrorism must not undermine the rights of Fijians.
Fiji News analysis: the practical test of a strategy like this is not the document but the appropriations and legislation that follow it. On the public record from the launch, neither is yet visible in detail, which leaves the 2026 to 2030 window as the period in which the pillars either acquire funded programmes or remain statements of intent.
What the strategy says
FBC News reported that the strategy takes a whole-of-government approach, on the basis that terrorism can intersect with other security threats, including firearms, money laundering, organised crime, maritime crime, cyber threats and other illicit activity. That list overlaps with pressures Fiji News has already covered, including record cocaine detections across the Pacific.
For that reason, Naivalurua said counter-terrorism cannot be left to police alone, a division of labour that echoes the debate over how far the military should support police on organised crime. He said government agencies must work with communities, schools, traditional institutions, faith groups, financial institutions, the technology sector and international partners to identify and prevent threats.
On the four pillars, the minister said prevention means identifying risks before they become threats, while preparation requires government and security agencies to be ready ahead of a crisis, FBC News reported. He said the response pillar will focus on protecting lives, containing threats and restoring safety, and that recovery involves rebuilding affected communities and learning from each incident. Fiji would also deepen cooperation with Pacific neighbours and international partners on intelligence sharing, border security, financial intelligence, cyber resilience and joint operations, he said, a theme running through closer security ties with Australia.
The lone-actor risk
Naivalurua said violence can emerge from individuals or small groups with little warning, according to FBC News. He said Fiji would not tolerate terrorism or violent extremism regardless of the ideology, motivation or justification behind it, and summed up the rationale for the strategy this way, as quoted by FBC News: “We prepare not because we expect terrorism, but because protecting our people is our responsibility.”
The money side: financing law and the economy
The clearest economic hook in the strategy is legislative. FBC News reported that the Counter Terrorism and Suppression of Terrorism Financing Bill is being progressed alongside the strategy and that Naivalurua said it will strengthen Fiji’s legislative capacity, and that financial intelligence is one of the areas Fiji will work on with partners. Banks and other financial institutions are named among the bodies the minister said agencies must work with.
Fiji News analysis: that puts the strategy on the same ground as Fiji’s existing anti-money-laundering obligations rather than on a separate counter-terrorism track. The compliance burden of a financing law falls on the same institutions that already have to screen transactions for proceeds of crime, and it runs into the same enforcement question raised by the UNODC’s call for Pacific states to go after criminal profits: detection is cheaper to announce than confiscation is to deliver. FBC News’ report does not say what the Bill will require of reporting entities or what it will cost to supervise, so the commercial impact on Fiji’s financial sector cannot yet be assessed from the public record.
Why a country with no attacks writes a plan anyway
Fiji is not the first state to adopt a counter-terrorism framework before experiencing an attack, and the case usually rests on cost rather than imminence. AllAfrica, writing in December 2025 about West Africa, reported that terrorism-related and armed attacks in that region rose from 1,601 incidents in 2022 to 1,715 in 2023 and 2,197 in 2024, citing the West African Network for Peacebuilding’s 2025 Early Warning Outlook. It described the economic consequences as declining productivity when investors lose confidence in state security, revenue losses in tourism where foreign nationals have been kidnapped, and national budgets tilted toward security spending at the expense of social programmes, citing the 2024 Kearney Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index finding that insecurity and rising geopolitical risk were pushing investors toward more stable markets.
None of those conditions are reported for Fiji, and the incident numbers are not comparable. The relevance is narrower: the channels AllAfrica identified, investor confidence, tourism receipts and crowded-out social spending, are the ones a tourism-dependent economy would feel first, which is the strongest available argument for spending on preparation that may never be used. Naivalurua did not make that economic case at the launch, on FBC News’ account; his stated reason was responsibility for protecting people.
The counter-argument is the one the minister pre-empted himself. Republishing historian David Fromkin’s essay on the strategy of terrorism, Foreign Affairs carried his warning that as technology widens the range of possible harm, governments come under growing pressure to abridge their own laws and liberties to suppress terrorists, pressure he said should be resisted. Naivalurua’s insistence on the Constitution, due process and necessity, as reported by FBC News, is the commitment against which the strategy’s implementation can be measured.
What is still unclear
On the public record from the launch as reported by FBC News, the strategy’s cost, its funding source, the lead agency for delivery, the timetable for the Counter Terrorism and Suppression of Terrorism Financing Bill and the content of that Bill are all unstated. Naivalurua said the launch is only the beginning and the strategy now has to be put into action, naming training, exercises and effective coordination as the next steps. Fiji News will follow the Bill’s progress through Parliament and any budget line attached to the strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the four pillars of Fiji’s National Counter Terrorism Strategy 2026-2030?
FBC News reported that the strategy is built around prevention, preparation, response and recovery. Naivalurua said prevention means identifying risks before they become threats and preparation requires government and security agencies to be ready ahead of a crisis. He said the response pillar will focus on protecting lives, containing threats and restoring safety, while recovery involves rebuilding affected communities and learning from each incident.
What is the Counter Terrorism and Suppression of Terrorism Financing Bill?
According to FBC News, the government is progressing a Counter Terrorism and Suppression of Terrorism Financing Bill, which Naivalurua said will strengthen Fiji’s legislative capacity to deal with terrorism. The FBC News report did not give a date for the Bill’s introduction or passage, its drafting stage, or the penalties and reporting obligations it would create.
Has Fiji ever had a terrorist attack?
Neither Naivalurua nor FBC News’ report of the launch cites a terrorist attack in Fiji. The minister’s stated position, as reported by the broadcaster, is that terrorism may be unlikely in the foreseeable future but that unlikely does not mean impossible, and that Fiji cannot wait for a threat to emerge before strengthening its national security response.
Which areas will Fiji work on with other countries?
FBC News reported that Naivalurua listed intelligence sharing, border security, financial intelligence, cyber resilience and joint operations as the areas where Fiji will deepen cooperation with Pacific neighbours and international partners.
What happens now that the strategy has been launched?
Naivalurua said the launch is only the beginning and the strategy now has to be put into action, according to FBC News. He named training, exercises and effective coordination as the next steps. The report did not set out a budget, an implementation timetable or which agency will lead delivery.
