PHNOM PENH/BEIJING (AFP): China's top diplomat Wang Yi will visit Indonesia, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea this week, the foreign ministry announced on Tuesday.
Wang's trip will kick off on Thursday, April 18 and wrap up on April 23, foreign ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said.
The foreign minister will chair a session of the China-Indonesia High-level Dialogue Cooperation Mechanism before going on to chair two meetings of the China-Cambodia Intergovernmental Coordination Committee.
He will finish the tour in Papua New Guinea, where in recent years Beijing has tried to chip away at US and Australian influence.
The Pacific Islands, while small in population, are replete with natural resources and sit at a geostrategic crossroads that could prove strategically vital in any military dispute over Taiwan.
Indonesia's president-elect Prabowo Subianto visited China at the beginning of April, where President Xi Jinping praised their ties and laid out a vision for regional peace.
China is one of the biggest sources of foreign direct investment in Indonesia and has poured billions of dollars into projects in the archipelago nation. - AFP
