BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s President Xi Jinping pledged fresh investment in the South Pacific island nation of Tonga in a meeting with King Tupou VI in Beijing on Tuesday, as China works to deepen its influence across the Asia-Pacific region.
Home to around 108,000 people, Tonga is one of several small Pacific island states at the centre of an intensifying contest for influence between China and Western nations, including Australia and the United States, due to their strategic location in the South Pacific, U.N. votes and seabed mineral resources.
“China and Tonga are true friends who have stood together through thick and thin,” Xi told Tupou during their meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
“No matter how the international situation changes, China will continue to support Tonga in safeguarding its national independence and sovereignty,” he said.
“China is willing to strengthen the alignment of development strategies with Tonga and expand cooperation in trade and investment, agriculture and fisheries, infrastructure, clean energy, healthcare, tourism and climate change response,” Xi added, according to a Chinese state media report on the meeting.
Tonga is heavily indebted to China’s EXIM bank, still paying off construction loans taken out two decades ago. It has sought Australia’s help to secure a restructuring from Beijing and has looked to Canberra and Washington for aid to strengthen resilience to climate disasters and fund infrastructure.
Tonga’s loan repayments to China’s EXIM Bank, which account for 48% of its total external debt, have become a key political issue and are central to the island nation’s 2025 budget, its budget documents show.
Debt repayments to China spiked last year on a loan used to rebuild its central business district after riots in 2006, which now accounts for two-thirds of debt repayments.
Beijing is looking for countries it can highlight as model members of Xi’s flagship ‘Belt and Road’ infrastructure initiative, which Tonga signed up to in 2018.
Tupou thanked Xi for China’s support in building up the island nation’s infrastructure, the Chinese readout said.
Australia this year has allocated A$27.1 million ($17.49 million) in development assistance to Tonga, official documents show, aimed at improving its resilience to climate change and rising sea levels. The U.S. committed $4.1 million in 2014.
Tonga owes Beijing $112 million, World Bank data shows.
($1 = 1.5494 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Joe Cash and Shi Bu; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Michael Perry)
