Fiji sits about 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) east of Australia at the edge of the Melanesian island chain. Its central location in the South Pacific on the trade route between the Americas and Oceania and its abundance in timber, mineral and fishing resources make Fiji an economic and communications hub for the smaller Pacific nations. Fiji is also an important player in the regional political dynamic. Together with other Melanesian nations, including Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, Fiji in 1983 formed the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), which has increasingly demonstrated its ability to act as a counterweight to the Australia- and New Zealand-dominated Pacific Islands Forum. Australia's relations with most of the MSG countries have been strained since the 2000s especially after a 2006 coup in Fiji brought a military junta to power. Since Australia suspended Fiji from the Pacific Islands Forum in 2009, the MSG has grown more assertive in challenging Canberra. It has criticized Australia's attempts to isolate Fiji and accused Canberra of deliberately trying to fragment regional groups as a way to maximize its power over the individual countries. Maintaining influence in the Melanesian Islands, of which Fiji is one of the most significant, is a strategic imperative for Canberra, but China has begun to fill the power vacuum left after Australia severed most of its ties with Fiji. Fiji's economic and geographic position is not particularly important to Australia. However, because of its role as a centerpiece of Melanesia and its ability to serve as a unifying force for the Melanesian chain, Australia's isolation of Fiji has undermined Canberra's relations with Papua New Guinea (much more important economically and strategically), the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and even parts of New Caledonia. The Fiji issue has not only opened a wider regional rift but also given China an opportunity to step in and exploit the islands, something inimical to Australia's strategic imperatives.
