Envoy Angered Over Nauru Behaviour
Chinese delegation disrespected by Nauru: Qian
Chinese Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo yesterday held a fiery press conference, saying Beijing’s delegates were disrespected in Nauru.
He was referring to behaviour by hosts and Pacific Islands Forum chair Nauru which provoked a walkout by the Chinese delegation at the 30th Pacific Islands Forum, which was held in Nauru.
Mr Qian was also critical of the ongoing issue of use of ordinary passport for visiting delegates, which was demanded by Nauru authorities of the Chinese instead of diplomatic passports.
Nauru is one of a handful of countries around the world which still recognise the government of Taipei (Taiwan) instead of Beijing. China regards Taiwan as a province of China.
Mr Qian said Nauru issued visas for some Chinese delegation members in the middle of August.
He claimed that just before the session Nauru revoked those visas on the excuse that it did not have diplomatic relations with China. Nauru requested members of the Chinese delegation to reapply for Nauru visas with regular passports and refused to issue visas to two delegates with diplomatic passports from the Chinese Embassy in Fiji.
He said for the past 29 years of Pacific Islands Forum meetings such a condition had never been set by any host country for the Forum’s dialogue partners.
Mr Qian said Nauru should reflect on its behaviour and apologise to all PIF countries and dialogue partners, including China.
The Chinese government has been participating in the forum dialogue meetings for 30 consecutive years and China will continue to strengthen friendly exchanges and pragmatic co-operation with island countries on the basis of the oneChina principle, he said.
“In order to get respect from the relevant person, one should act with dignity and self-respect in order to get respect from the other countries,” Mr Qian said.