By Itamar Eichner

Copyright ynetnews

Fiji, the South Pacific island nation of fewer than one million people, inaugurated its first-ever embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The new embassy, located in the Har Hotzvim district in the same building as Paraguay’s mission, joins six other embassies already operating in Israel’s capital. The opening ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Fijian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. Before the event, Netanyahu hosted Rabuka for a diplomatic meeting, thanking him for his support and solidarity with Israel. The two discussed regional political and security issues, and Rabuka invited Netanyahu and his wife to visit Fiji. Fiji’s embassy in Jerusalem is the seventh to open in Israel’s capital, following those of the United States, Guatemala, Kosovo, Honduras, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay. The initial agreement was reached in June 2023 by then–Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, but the move was delayed. The embassy’s opening was finalized after an agreement between Sa’ar and Rabuka in February on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Israel’s Foreign Ministry is covering the costs of renting the embassy building for five years, as it has done with the embassies of Honduras, Paraguay and Papua New Guinea. According to Fiji’s Foreign Ministry, the country now has 14 diplomatic missions abroad, including embassies in the United States, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, as well as two permanent missions to the United Nations in Geneva and New York. The Jerusalem embassy is Fiji’s 14th worldwide.