Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, touched down in Fiji on Tuesday for the first royal visit to the South Pacific nation since a military coup 12 years ago saw it suspended from the Commonwealth for eight years until democratic elections.

Hundreds of spectators waved small plastic Fijian and British flags as Harry, wearing a gray suit with three medals, and Meghan, dressed in a cream long-sleeved dress and matching hat, stepped onto the tarmac outside the capital of Suva.

"Regardless of the drizzling rain, Fijians are out in numbers with their umbrellas to welcome their royal highnesses," the Fiji government said on social network Twitter, alongside pictures of crowds waiting to greet the couple.