BEIJING - China on Tuesday congratulated Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama on his election as Fiji's new prime minister.

"We would like to work together with the Fiji government to forge ahead in bilateral relations," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a daily press briefing.

Bainimarama was sworn in as the South Pacific island country's new prime minister on Monday, after his Fiji First Party won a landslide victory in the 2014 general election, the first in the eight years since the military took power.