Kiribati Vice President Teuea Toatu Meets with Wang Yi

On May 27, 2022 local time, Kiribati Vice President Teuea Toatu met with visiting State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tarawa.

Toatu welcomed the visit of the Chinese delegation against the impacts of the pandemic, saying that Kiribati has benefited a lot from China's valuable support and selfless assistance which Kiribati always bears in mind. Kiribati cherishes Kiribati-China relations and will continue to firmly pursue the one-China principle. China is a genuine development partner of Kiribati, and Kiribati looks forward to further strengthening cooperation between the two sides in various fields such as development planning, infrastructure, health and pandemic response, climate change, maritime affairs and others.

Wang Yi said that China highly appreciates the important contribution made by Mr. Vice President to the resumption of China-Kiribati diplomatic relations and believes that Kiribati will continue to pursue a friendly policy toward China and adhere to the one-China principle. Either now or in the future, China has always been a good and trustworthy friend of developing countries, especially small and medium-sized countries, and will continue to firmly support developing countries in accelerating development, improving people's livelihood and achieving revitalization.

Wang Yi said that China and Kiribati always treat each other as equals and respect each other. The cooperation between the two countries belongs to South-South cooperation and is the cooperation among developing countries and the cooperation to safeguard common interests. China supports Kiribati in promoting the Kiribati 20-year Vision (KV20) development blueprint and stands ready to strengthen the synergy between development strategies. China will continue to provide assistance within its capacity according to the needs of Kiribati. China supports and stands ready to help Kiribati protect and make good use of marine resources to achieve beneficial development, living and prospering side by side.

Wang Yi said, China fully understands Pacific Island Countries' special concerns on the climate change issue and will continue to promote the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. China is willing to take the signing of the agreement on the implementation of the South-South cooperation materials assistance project to tackle climate change as an opportunity to continue to provide Kiribati with support and assistance so as to enhance its capacity to cope with climate change.

After the meeting, the two sides jointly attended the signing ceremony of the cooperation documents on economy and technology, climate change response and others.