SYDNEY - The United States and Fiji have started talks aimed at strengthening military ties between Washington and the Pacific island nation, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday (Nov 23), concluding a trip to the Indo Pacific.

Austin, on his 12th trip to the region as defence secretary, said negotiations had started on a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Fiji, which would enable the US to "deploy and redeploy forces in support of Fiji".

It would also "help us train with the Fijians on a very routine basis," he said alongside Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in a press conference live-streamed from the city of Nadi, on Fiji's main island Viti Levu.

The US also pledged US$4.9 million (S$6.6 million) to support Fiji's military modernisation and signed a bilateral logistics co-operation deal, according to a defence department statement.

Austin's visit to Fiji was the first by a US Secretary of Defence to the strategically located nation of around one million people, comprising an archipelago of 322 islands.

It was the last stop on a trip that also took him to Australia, the Philippines and Laos.

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