No country can block China’s cooperation with island nations in the Pacific and the area is no country’s sphere of influence, a senior diplomat said on Tuesday.
The diplomat said this ahead of a summit between President Xi Jinping and Pacific Island leaders.
Australia, in particular, has been vying for influence with China in sparsely populated Pacific island countries that control vast swathes of resource-rich oceans.
Australia will offer Pacific countries up to 2.18 billion dollars (3 billion Australia dollars) in grants and cheap loans to build infrastructure, Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, said. Read more