LONDON: Any attempt to provoke camp confrontation in the South Pacific region does not serve the urgent needs of South Pacific island countries, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at a press conference with Papua New Guinea's Foreign Minister Justin Tkachenko held here Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Wang said the Pacific island countries are the homeland of their people, not the "backyard" of any major power.
The United States is trying to cobble together a "trilateral security partnership" and insisted on introducing nuclear submarines into this region, which violates the purpose of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty and poses a serious risk of nuclear proliferation, Wang noted.
Recently, the United States and its allies even came up with pretexts to try to entice more countries to join their bloc, said the Chinese foreign minister.
He said that China has consistently opposed the act of provoking camp confrontation in this region because it does not serve the urgent needs of the South Pacific island countries and runs counter to the global trend of development.