Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. Photo: VCG

"Why does the US bother to visit an island country where its embassy has been shut down for 29 years? To care about the country's development status or try to achieve other purposes?" Spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry asked the US after the country sent senior officials to the Solomon Islands and discuss issues involving China. 

The US' intention to exaggerate tensions and stir up opposition will not work and its attempt to block the island country to cooperate with China is doomed to be in vain, the ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday's press conference, noting that rather than someone's backyard or pawn in geopolitical confrontation, Pacific Island states need diversified external cooperation and the free choice of their cooperation partners.

Wang said the US is much more suitable to the description of "undermining regional security" as it tries to bring the risk of nuclear proliferation and the Cold War mindset to the South Pacific region through AUKUS while smearing China, which has always performed as the regional peace-builder and stability-promoter.

Wang reaffirmed that the open, transparent and inclusive security cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands does not target any third party or contradict the Solomon Islands' current bilateral or multilateral security cooperation mechanisms.

As a normal exchange between two independent sovereign states, the security cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands is in the common interest of the Solomon Islands and the South Pacific region given its aims are to promote social stability and good governance, Wang noted.

The cooperation is devoted to strengthening the Solomon Islands' capacity to maintain national security, including social order, protection of people's lives and property, humanitarian assistance and natural disasters response, Wang said.

Global Times