China's government has confirmed that its Foreign Minister Wang Yi will today embark on a Pacific trip of unprecedented scope and ambition, travelling to eight countries across the region in 10 days.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing that the minister would visit Solomon Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste over the coming fortnight.
Wang Yi will also host his second-ever meeting with Pacific Island Foreign Ministers while in Fiji.
News of the trip first broke earlier this month, when Solomon Islands government sources flagged the Foreign Minister was planning a visit to the country. The ABC also reported on Monday that Wang Yi was expected to visit at least five countries in the Pacific region.
But the Foreign Ministry's announcement still provides the first complete picture of China's plans.
Wang Wenbin said that the trip would "further enhance the political mutual trust between China and the above countries", "push cooperation in various fields to a new level" and "inject new impetus into the long-term development of bilateral relations."
The Foreign Minister's progress will be closely watched by Australian officials who are anxious about China's move to cement commercial, strategic and security ties with Pacific Island nations, particularly in the wake of the security pact which Beijing signed with Solomon Islands last month.
The Financial Times has reported that China may be eyeing similar agreements in other Pacific island nations, including in Kiribati.
Kiribati's government has firmly denied that claim, although one Western government official told the ABC that was a "plausible" prospect.
While Wang Yi will visit Kiribati he will only stay in the country for four hours, largely because of the Pacific Island country's strict COVID control quarantine measures.
One Pacific Island government source told the ABC they believed there had been "long and intense" negotiations over this leg of his trip, and that Kiribati only agreed to the visit after China applied intense pressure.
In a statement, Kiribati's government called the visit an "important milestone for Kiribati-China relations" that would "strengthen and promote partnership and cooperation between our two countries after the resumption of diplomatic ties in 2019."
Growing influence
Meanwhile, Chinese state media outlets are already trumpeting the trip as evidence of China's growing influence throughout the Pacific.
"The US is trying to contain China with its Indo-Pacific Strategy, but now China's footprints are ubiquitous in the region outside the second island chain, and this proves the US' containment strategy is not working.
"Washington and Canberra's attempt to form a regional alliance to target China is doomed to fail."
The Lowy Institute's Pacific analyst Jonathan Pryke said the "marathon" and "historic" trip by the Foreign Minister would be closely watched in Western capitals.
"It will no doubt have a lot of analysts in the west nervous, both for what it signals of China's renewed engagement but also for what deals will be signed along the way," he said.
"For the jet-setting foreign minister though it will just be another standard week in the job."
