New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged on Wednesday to avoid the “militarization” of the Pacific region, responding to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to the region amid rising tensions with the United States and other countries.
“There is a tension in our region. We’ve heard it escalate in language for a while now. New Zealand continues to call for peace and stability,” Ardern told New Zealand media during her first day of a trip to the US. Got to meet President Joe Biden.
Ardern’s visit to the North American country, which promotes various mechanisms and agreements to counterbalance Beijing’s expansion of political and economic influence in the Pacific, coincides with Wang’s visit to several island nations in the aforementioned region.
China’s foreign minister will visit the Solomon Islands, with whom Beijing reached a controversial defense deal in April that has sparked alarm, and will meet with Solomon Islands President Manasseh Sokhaware on Thursday.
Wang’s tour will continue to seven other Pacific countries: Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.
Ardern insisted she was not concerned about the Chinese foreign minister’s visit to New Zealand’s neighbours, but the “intentions” surrounding the visit.
“We want cooperation in areas of shared concern, issues like climate adaptation and mitigation, investment and quality infrastructure. We don’t want militarization, escalation of tension,” the New Zealand president said. New Zealand.
The deal between Beijing and Honiara, negotiated in an opaque manner and announced without details, leaves open the possibility of China sending security forces to the Solomon Islands if Honiara requests it during “uncertain” times. With Australia or New Zealand.
However, the aspect creating the most tension is the fear that the Asian giant will establish a naval base in the Pacific region, which the Solomon Islands government denies.
Solomon Islands “has similar agreements with New Zealand and Australia and we are going to maintain them. So we question whether these agreements (with China) are necessary and we are ready to help,” Ardern stressed.
The Financial Times newspaper exclusively reported on Saturday, citing US intelligence sources, that China is negotiating with another Pacific nation defense deals similar to those reached with Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.
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