SYDNEY – Fiji’s prime minister Frank Bainimarama has told thousands of Fijians in Sydney he is sorry for the impact of coups on his country.

“I want to say sorry to those of you who suffered, the many thousands who were made to feel like strangers in your own country,” he said.

Speaking at Fiji Day celebrations in the western Sydney suburb of Liverpool, he said Fiji’s history had been long and hard and apologised to those forced to flee after coups in 1987 and 2000.

Bainimarama did not specifically mention his own coup in 2006, but received loud applause for the apology and his invitation for Fijians to return home.

It followed an address to the Australia Fiji Business Council forum where the prime minister said it was time for both Fijian and Australian governments to reach out to each other and rekindle the warmth the relationship enjoyed before the 2006 coup.

He told the business gathering in Manly that he was, in particular, delighted that travel bans on him had been lifted.

In an effort to put a decade of diplomatic tensions with Australia behind him, he said he anticipated a simple walk along Manly Beach.

“I can’t help thinking how times have changed. The so-called pariah is now a welcome guest and is able to parade along the Manly Esplanade with the surfers and the seagulls,” the one time military strongman said to laughter at the business council gathering.

Despite a thawing in relations since elections and the return of parliamentary rule last year, Bainimarama has continued his push to exclude Australia and New Zealand from the region’s peak political body, the Pacific Islands Forum.

“Fiji used the period of our estrangement to develop other relationships,” he told the meeting.

He has called upon Australia to now build an atmosphere of confidence, cooperation and trust with Fiji.

Bainimarama used the platform to reiterate his criticism of Canberra’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, its approach to the Pacer Plus trade deal, and its failure to recognise his constitutional changes as improving the rights of Fiji citizens.

Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Steven Ciobo, took the criticism in his stride.

“One thing that they say in politics is always certain, is change. As you walk along the Manly Esplanade and see the seagulls and the surfers, there’s also a chance you might run into the former prime minister of Australia,” he said, to laughter.

But Bainimarama’s main message, and one especially aimed at the Turnbull Government and Mr Ciobo, was that it was time to heal the rift.

The prime minister said the tenor of Australia’s relationship with Fiji since the Coalition came to office had undergone a transformation, and wants to take it a step further.

“It is now time for Fiji and Australia to reach out fully to each other again at an official level,” he said.

“Fiji seeks a new relationship with Australia, a reinvigorated relationship based on mutual respect and friendship.”.

“Minister, I’ve been gratified by your appointment last month with responsibility for the Pacific and see it as a clear sign of a renewed commitment by the Turnbull Government to give the island nations a higher priority.”

Fiji is a key player in the Pacific and Australia is its biggest source of investment, tourism and aid.

Ciobo acknowledged there would be irritants, as in any relationship, but said he could not agree more that it was now time to let bygones be bygones.

Meanwhile, an anti-Fiji government and anti-Bainimarama protest that was being organised for the Fiji Day celebrations in Sydney turned out to be a flop, the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation reports.

Anti-government people living in Australia – including Ony Kirwin who has been allegedly behind the formation of the separate Christian state in Ra and Nadroga – and self-exiled failed lawyer Rajendra Chaudhry had been given a permit from the New South Wales police to protest against the Prime Minister’s visit.

They had called on all their supporters to protest during the Prime Ministers appearance at the Fiji Day celebrations and had urged supporters to throw eggs and tomatoes at Bainimarama.

However the planned protest fizzled out with only a handful of protesters showing up.

A handful of people held banners and placards – however this was overshadowed by around thirteen thousand people who took part in the celebration proper, FBC reports.