Ma Zhaoxu, China’s vice-foreign minister, will go to Fiji and Australia this week, the Chinese foreign ministry announced on Monday.
Former Australian ambassador Ma’s visit was intended to improve relations between the two nations in advance of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s projected trip to Beijing this year.
In an article published last week where Albanese was said to be considering a trip to Beijing in September or October to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first visit to China by an Australian prime minister.
By mid-April, Western Australia’s premier Mark McGowan is scheduled to make his first trip in four years to Beijing and the southern city of Guangzhou to discuss tourism development.
Ma will attend another round of political meetings regarding his travel to Australia this week, according to Wang Wenbin, spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry. Wang predicted that Ma would visit Fiji as well.
The trip occurs as ties between China and Australia are starting to warm up. Relationships between China and Australia have worsened in recent years due to issues with Xinjiang’s human rights situation.
The need for an inquiry into the cause of the Covid-19 outbreak, worries about national security, and escalating economic disagreements.
Since November, when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Albanese met outside the G20 summit in Bali, things have gotten better. Both expressed a desire to normalise relations during the first official talks between the two leaders in six years.
Albanese also had trade on his mind. In December, Wang Yi, the then-foreign minister of China, met with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Beijing.
The parties concurred to intensify their discussions of topics like commerce, security, and human rights. In recent years, as competition with the United States in the region has intensified, China has also sought to strengthen relations with Pacific Island countries.
Qian Bo, China’s ambassador to Fiji since 2018, was named as the country’s first special envoy for Pacific Island affairs in February. In this higher position, he will be in charge of handling urgent diplomatic matters.
The Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka reversed a previous administration’s decision by cancelling the country’s police training and exchange arrangement with China weeks before the assignment.
Rabuka claimed that due to the “different systems” between the two countries, Chinese state security officials would no longer cooperate with its police force.
China aimed to “expand law enforcement cooperation, jointly combat transnational crime, and establish a dialogue mechanism on law enforcement capacity and police cooperation” in the area.
However, China’s proposal for regional security cooperation fell short of securing support from all Pacific countries.
Frank Bainimarama, a former foreign minister and prime minister of Fiji, stated that the ministers prioritised consensus at the China-Pacific Islands Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in May of last year.
“Anyone whose community is eroding under the rising seas, whose job is being lost to the pandemic, or whose family is affected by the sharp increase in the price of commodities, knows that scoring geopolitical points means less than little,” he remarked.
