The aid was announced despite relations being strained with Fiji after Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s government expelled New Zealand’s High Commissioner Caroline McDonald last month.
In a statement, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said further funding allocations would be made to “relief agencies who are working with communities affected by the flooding.”
A spokesman for McCully said it was “standard practice” to give aid directly to the Red Cross and New Zealand’s current relationship with the military government had nothing to do with it.
McCully’s spokesman said Bainimarama’s government had not asked for any money directly, but if it did, it would have to be considered “carefully.”
New Zealand opposition Labor Party leader Phil Goff supported the decision to send aid, referring to Fijian people as “close friends.”
Hundreds of tourists from New Zealand and Australia remain stranded by flooding in the Fijian tourist hub of Nadi and outlying resorts, after storms lashed the Pacific island destination.
Authorities have declared a state of emergency in areas affected by the tropical storm, which has left eight dead and more than 9000, displaced.
An initial assessment provided by the National Emergency Operation Center in Suva has estimated damage caused by flooding in three divisions to close to $8.5 million. In the Western Division, which covers the towns of Nadi, Lautoka and Ba, infrastructural damage alone is estimated at around $1.5 million.
Flood warming remains in force for the Northern main island of Vanua Levu, where people living in low lying areas have been advised to move to higher grounds before high tide.
