The Centre for International and Regional Affairs (CIRA) was founded at the University of Fiji by Mr Robin Nair. He is now the Hon Director of the CIRA. Mr Nair had determined some years ago to return to his native Fiji from Australia to start a think tank on developing alternate policy ideas on Fiji’s relationship with the region and beyond. He also wanted the think tank to have a training capacity to train Fiji’s diplomats.

Mr Nair was inspired by his father’s public service, his passion for Fiji and its development as a young nation. His father, the late Raman Nair CVO CBE served Fiji in senior positions in the Fiji Government, reaching the level of Permanent Secretary. He was appointed as Fiji’s first High Commissioner to Australia and Papua New Guinea. He served in this role for six years. On his retirement, the Prime Minister appointed him as the Agriculture Tribunal, a sensitive land tribunal.

Mr Nair himself had been a Fiji Diplomat and later an Australian Diplomat. He also served as UN official on a regional project in Southeast Asia as the Regional Fisheries Law Adviser. He recalls that when he was sent to the Fiji Mission to the United Nations in New York on his first overseas posting, he had no idea of what was expected of him. He had no diplomatic training or experience. He could only become effective for Fiji after a period of learning on the job. He had to depend totally on his own resources. There was no policy advice to fall back on.

When he later joined the Australian Foreign Service, he realised how disadvantaged countries like Fiji were compared to countries like Australia which had such large bureaucracies, think tanks, and other organisational support apart form the excellent training of its diplomats. Fiji, as an independent sovereign country, had to play in the same field of international and regional affairs and diplomacy as its developed neighbours.

Each country aspires to achieve outcomes to serve their own national interests. Mr Nair found out very quickly that there was no such thing as charity in international diplomacy. There was no such thing as a level playing field.

Mr Nair set out to look for an opportunity to establish an institution in Fiji which could give support to the government, the private sector involved in the export market or wanted to be involved in the export market and the NGOs who were interested in contributing to a just world through international relations. He also wanted to educate the community on the benefits from an effective conduct of foreign and trade policies. Most of all, he wanted to see a strong, efficient and trained diplomatic cadre in Fiji.

Mr Nair was also convinced through his experience in Australia, particularly as the Director of the Tasmanian Regional Office of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Hobart that exports created real jobs. And the real jobs were in fact created by small to medium sized businesses involved in export. Mr Nair was largely involved with advising exporters from Tasmania, a small island State within the Australian Federation about the international trading regime. He was immensely impressed by the ability of small businesses in remote areas of Tasmania to find niche markets for their products.

His experience in Tasmania convinced him the potential of small countries like Fiji to develop niche markets for unique products. He wanted to pass on his Tasmania experience to his native Fiji.

Mr Nair was also conscious of Fiji’s Pacific neighbours, the Pacific Island Countries. He knew that some of these countries had even greater problems in harnessing their national interests in the international arena. He hoped that the Centre would be able to work for them as well.

Mr Nair got his opportunity to return to Fiji to develop his dream institution when he was approached by the University of Fiji to develop a Centre for International and Regional Affairs. But his mandate from the University was very tough. He was asked to establish the Centre without any financial help from the budget of the University. It had to be self-funded. He took a year off from his employment in Australia. On a voluntary basis, he set about getting support for the establishment of the Centre. Within a year he was able to set up the Centre. The Centre was launched by the then distinguished Fiji Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hon Senator Kaliopate Tavola n 22 June 2006, followed by a two day Workshop on Globalsiation: Challenges to Fiji’s Diplomacy. In his launching Speech, Senator Tavola said:

“I was actually keen as mustard to participate in these events. You may wonder why! Well, if you were Minister of Foreign Affairs & External Trade, like myself, wouldn’t you be impressed with the terms or reference of CIRA, which plans to address precisely all the complex and technical regional, diplomatic and global issues that we, in the Ministry, are trying to grapple with on a daily basis?

These are regional and global issues in which we have lacked competence, experience and institutional memory for decades. Issues, for instance, for which organizations and even governments pay big bucks for greater comprehension and clarity, for the purpose of achieving regional and international credibility and kudos. Issues that are related to, inter alia, trade negotiations, be they bilateral, sub-regional, regional or multilateral.

I am very happy indeed to be here!

When you relate CIRA’s core function to the multiplicity of my Ministry’s role in the Pacific regional context, for instance, you can begin to appreciate the degree of my happiness in being here.”

Mr Gareth Evans AO QC, the Patron of the Centre sent the following message to the Launch as he was in Brussels and unable to attend:

"The launch of this Centre, and the holding of this Globalisation workshop to mark the occasion, could not be more timely. The economic and security issues with which the region is wrestling need fresh, hard and sustained new thinking, and this new Centre - under Robin Nair's very able, creative and dedicated leadership - is wonderfully positioned to generate it.

I am honoured to have been asked to accept the role of the Centre's inaugural Patron. When I became Australia's Foreign Minister in 1988, I regarded getting to know and understand our Pacific Island neighbours as my most immediate priority, made the region my first ministerial travel destination, and have remained closely interested in following your fortunes ever since. This is a great day for Fiji, for this University, and for all those who have worked so hard to realise this vision, and I wish I was there to share it with you. From the other side of the world, in body but not in spirit, my warmest congratulations!"

The Centre is also a tribute to the work of Fiji’s first Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. He was a well-respected and widely known in the international arena. He was the father of the nation. He put the new independent country of Fiji on the map of the world. Tribute is also paid to his first nominees as Fiji’s first overseas representatives, They were Raman Nair CVO CBE (Canberra), Mr Semesa Sikivou CBE (New York), Sir Josua Rabukawaqa KBE (UK). These were pioneers in formulating and implementing Fiji’s first foreign policy. It is the hope of the Centre to maintain their vision and excellence.

Lastly but not the least, the Centre would not have become a reality if it was not for the support and encouragement given by the inaugural Vice-Chancellor of the University of Fiji, Professor Rajesh Chandra, the founder and the first CEO of the University, Dr Ganesh Chand, the eminent Fiji scholar, Prof Satendra Nandan and the inaugural University Council.