Just days after Fiji's military regime resumed diplomatic ties with New Zealand and Australia it has dumped Queen Elizabeth II's official birthday from its list of annual public holidays.
It says the June occasion is no longer relevant to the former British colony.
The government of Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a
2006 coup, said on Tuesday that dropping Queen's birthday from the calendar would also boost economic productivity in the South Pacific nation.
Fiji announced last year that it was dropping the Queen's likeness from
its coins and replacing it with local fauna and flora.
Fiji was declared a republic in 1987 after the second of four military coups over the past three decades.
It became independent from Britain in 1970.
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