Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has managed to secure several bilateral agreements with Tonga on disaster relief, agriculture, fishery, health and police equipment as he reaches the backend of his ten-day trip around the Pacific.
It comes after Beijing vows to continue pushing Pacific nations to join a sweeping regional security and economy deal despite a lack of consensus among Pacific nations on the Chinese regime’s original proposal.
Wang has visited the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa and Fiji to date. He will be heading to Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste in the coming days.
On Tuesay, Wang met with Tonga Prime Minister Hu’akavemeiliku Siasi Sovaleni and King Tupou VI at the Royal Palace, where the leaders signed a tranche of bilateral agreements which will allow China to provide a police laboratory and customs inspection equipment to Tonga, disaster relief aid, blue economy cooperation, and a tomb improvement project….