China has signed a series of deals with Pacific Island nations, but has not succeeded in securing a region-spanning economic and security agreement. Anonymous/AP Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare at right lock arms with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Honiara, Solomon Islands, Thursday, May 26, 2022. “We don't attach political strings to our cooperation with other countries.”AP President of Fiji, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere, left, watches as the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi signs a visitor book. Dr Anna Powles, a Pacific security expert and senior lecturer at Massey University, said meeting had “demonstrated the limitations of China’s multilateral approach to diplomacy in the Pacific”. Bilateral agreements between Pacific nations and China were not new, he said.

Source: Stuff May 30, 2022 21:20 UTC