China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in the Solomon Islands today, as the kick off to his eight-nation South Pacific tour, for which a ministerial level meeting is planned for May 30 in Fiji. His visits will include Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea, as well as Fiji and the Solomons. He will hold virtual meetings also with the Cook Islands, Niue, and the Federated States of Micronesia.
A prepared text for joint agreement is circulating, which the foreign ministers of the 10 nations can take up May 30. Its title is the `Common Development Vision’. Wang is travelling with a 20- person delegation. Topics reported to be under discussion range from jointly developing a fisheries plan, to setting up Confucius Institutes for cultural and language development, to assistance on law enforcement training.
