The Republic of Fiji Military Forces Commander Land Force Colonel Manoa Gadai and his planning team attended the Coral Warrior Planning Conference which was conducted 2nd to the 5th of December 2019 at the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane.
The 5 engagement focus areas which were identified during the 2019 Fiji – Australia Defense Cooperation talks were discussed in detailed to determine the 2020 engagement activities. This includes Soldier Skills, Land Force Tactical Logistics, PMV Operation and Maintenance, Land Force Engineer Capacity, HADR and general issues which covers signal, female participation and personnel management.
Both parties have agreed on engaging in individual training courses , short term exchange programs which will begin with Exercise Diamond Walk in May next year. Exercise Diamond Walk is the cornerstone activity for 2020, which will involve the RFMF providing a contribution to the 7th Brigade (Bde) Combined Unit Training Activity (CUTA) spearheaded by 8th /9th Royal Artillery Regiment along with the support of Combat Service Support Battalion (CSSB) and 2 Combat Engineer Regiment (CER) from the 08 to the 31 of May 2020.
On the other hand, the RFMF will contribute an infantry platoon, engineer section, logistics section and exercise staff team. It has been agreed by both parties that this will be an ongoing annual collective training exercise between Australian Army and the RFMF Land Force.
Therefore, discussions further explored the likely 2021 engagement opportunities which agreed on continued efforts associated with the 5 engagement focus areas with potential to include increased scope of Ex Diamond Walk, greater organic training capacity of Land Forces and greater HADR interactions which will allow RFMF Land Force to rebuild its capacity and capability transformations in particular its interoperability with the 7th Bde, thus setting the bedrock upon which the solid long – term relationship between the two militaries will be based upon.
The initial plan of this planning conference is to focus only on Ex Diamond Walk with RFMF Land Force and 7th Bde, however, discussions further evolved into Coral Warrior program.
Also agreed upon are the two planning conferences that will be conducted for the purpose of assessing the progress of the Coral Warrior programme in 2020 and to plan for the following year 2021 and review the 3 year engagement plan. The first planning conference will be held in Fiji during the second week of February 2020, with the second planning conference to be conducted in Brisbane during the first week of July 2020.
On the final day of this planning conference, the minutes were then presented to the RFMF Head of Delegation, Commander Land Force, Colonel Manoa Gadai and the Australian Army Head of Delegation, Commander 7th Combat Brigade, Brigadier Andrew Hocking, who then endorsed them accordingly.
The RFMF Commander Land Force, Col M. Gadai arrived on Wednesday 04 December 19 and was accorded a quarter guard by the 8/9 RAR on Thursday. He was also hosted by the Acting Commander 1 DIV followed by a brief at its Headquarters. He also assisted Brigadier Hocking in awarding few of the other ranks promotions for 8/9 RAR.
