Wang Yi: China stands ready to build six new platforms for cooperation with Pacific Island Countries

On 30 May 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met the press together with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji in Suva. State Councilor Wang elaborated on the outcomes of China-Pacific Island Countries cooperation, and expressed China's readiness to build six new platforms for cooperation with Pacific Island Countries.

State Councilor Wang said, since the establishment of diplomatic ties in the 1970s, relations between China and Pacific Island Countries have flourished, and exchanges and cooperation have been expanding in more than 20 areas including trade, investment, ocean affairs, environmental protection, disaster preparedness and mitigation, poverty alleviation and health. China has signed Belt and Road cooperation MoUs with all Pacific Island Countries having diplomatic relations with China, and become an important trading partner and source of investment of Pacific Island Countries. From 1992 to 2021, trade volume between China and Pacific Island Countries having diplomatic relations with China registered an average annual increase of 13 percent and expanded by over 30 times. Chinese businesses have undertaken projects in Pacific Island Countries with a total volume of more than 20 billion US dollars. China has implemented nearly 500 complete plant projects, technical assistance, in-kind assistance and concessional loan projects in Pacific Island Countries, helped them build important infrastructure such as road, bridge, wharf, hospital, school and stadium, and trained about 10,000 professionals in various fields. China has dispatched medical teams to eight Pacific Island Countries having diplomatic ties with China, benefiting several hundred thousand local residents. Since the start of COVID-19, China has provided Pacific Island Countries with multiple batches of vaccines and anti-epidemic supplies. China and Pacific Island Countries have set up 22 pairs of sister provinces/states and cities. Prior to COVID-19, nearly 100,000 Chinese tourists traveled to the South Pacific every year. All these numbers show that the all-round cooperation between China and Pacific Island Countries have delivered tangible benefits to the people in the region.

State Councilor Wang announced that China will make continued efforts to build new platforms of cooperation, i.e. the China-Pacific Island Countries Reserve of Emergency Supplies, Climate Action Cooperation Center, Poverty Reduction and Development Cooperation Center, Demonstration Center for Agricultural Cooperation, Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Cooperation Center, and Juncao Technology Demonstration Center, in a bid to inject sustained new impetus to cooperation between the two sides.