By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – China’s special envoy to the Pacific Islands will visit Cook Islands, the current chair of the Pacific Island Forum regional bloc, on Thursday for meetings with officials, the Cook Islands government said.
The three-day visit by China’s special envoy Qian Bo comes as two of the forum’s members, Australia and New Zealand, called for transparency over a policing plan signed by China and the Solomon Islands this week.
A three-year policing programme was among nine deals signed on Monday as Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on a week-long visit, where diplomatic ties were upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
Expanding China’s policing support will “enhance our ability to maintain law, order, security and social stability, protecting the security and interests of all citizens of Solomon Islands, thereby creating a sound and stable environment for the social and economic development of the country,” Sogavare’s office said in a statement.
China’s Minister of Public Security, Wang Xiaohong, met Solomon Islands police minister Anthony Veke in Beijing, Chinese media reported, and said the two countries relationship had become “a model of solidarity”, as China was willing to “promote China’s police and law enforcement co-operation to a new level”.
Australia said it would raise its concerns about regional security impacts at the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum, where leaders had agreed to look to “Pacific family first” for security, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Wednesday.
The Cook Islands government, which will host a meeting of Pacific leaders in November, did not comment on what issues would be discussed between the Chinese envoy and its Pacific Islands Forum Special Envoy.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told a meeting of NATO leaders in Lithuania on Wednesday that “China’s increasing assertiveness is resulting in geopolitical change and competition” in the Pacific.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a strategic assessment this week that Pacific countries and regional organisations are “facing pressures” from a more assertive China, and the Pacific Islands Forum should continue to hold primacy on security.
Sogavare said in an interview with China’s Phoenix Television the response from other nations to his decision to partner with China was “unfortunate”.
“All the nonsense that we are hearing is… a misunderstanding of basically what China is doing,” he said on Tuesday.
“China has no other strategic interest, other than Taiwan and of course the South China Sea.”
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney, Lucy Craymer in Wellington and Martin Pollard in Beijing; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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