Prime Minister of the Republic of Fiji Sitiveni Rabuka arrived in Beijing on Saturday evening for an official visit to China.
At the invitation of Premier of the State Council Li Qiang, Sitiveni Rabuka is visiting China from August 12 to 21.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, during the visit, leaders of the two countries will have in-depth exchanges of views on China-Fiji relations and important issues of mutual interest.
Through this visit, China hopes to take the comprehensive strategic partnership featuring mutual respect and common development to a new level and work with Fiji to build an even closer community with a shared future between China and Pacific Island countries, said the ministry.
Located in the South Pacific Ocean and made up of 332 islands, Fiji is the first Pacific Island country to have established diplomatic ties with China.
Last year, trade between the two countries reached around 526 million U.S. dollars. China's main exports are machinery and equipment, electrical appliances, electronic products, computers and communication technology, automobiles and ships. Meanwhile, its imports from Fiji include bauxite, frozen fish, logs and sawn timber, and beverages.
Sitiveni Rabuka follows in the footsteps of several other South Pacific leaders to visit China in recent months.
Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka arrives in Beijing
The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said Wednesday that the United States has paused intelligence support to Ukraine, on top of halting weapons shipments to the country that's still at war with Russia.
John Ratcliffe, the CIA chief, said in an interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo that U.S. President Donald Trump "had a real question about whether President Zelensky was committed to the peace process, and he said let's pause."
The decision came after a clash between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, where Trump demanded gratitude from Zelensky for the aid Washington provided to Kiev. The Ukrainian leader was asked to leave the White House without signing a minerals deal with Trump as originally planned.
Zelensky has since been trying to mend the relationship with the U.S. administration by efforts including sending a letter to Trump expressing his willingness "to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer," Trump said in his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
"I want to give a chance to think about that and you saw the response that President Zelensky put out," Ratcliffe told Bartiromo on Wednesday. "So I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away."
"And I think we'll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine," Ratcliffe said in an expression of optimism, adding that Washington and Kiev would work together to "put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward."
CIA chief says US pauses intel sharing with Ukraine
