The Chinese Government stands ready to help pacific island states whenever needed.

Chinese Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo made this assurance while officiating at the emergency supplies shipment to Tonga from Port Mua-i-Walu in Suva yesterday.

The Chinese Embassy in Fiji coordinated the shipment to assist in rehabilitation works in Tonga after the impacts of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcanic eruption on January 15.

Mr Qian said the relief supplies were worth close to FJD$350,000 and included food, water, generators, water pumps, food and medical kits and personal protective equipment.

Two Chinese fishing vessels left Fiji yesterday to deliver the supplies and will arrive in Tonga tomorrow, Wednesday, January 26.

“For the crisis in Tonga, the Chinese Red Cross Society has donated US$100,000 and the Chinese Government has also announced further assistance to Tonga which is about US$3.15m of goods, relief supplies from China,” Mr Qian said.

“This will be delivered this week and at the same time we believe that Fiji is the central country in the region and Tonga is very much near to Fiji, so we thought of delivering some goods just to offer help,” he said.

“That’s why we have decided to mobilise some emergency supplies.”

He said this was a gesture from the Chinese Embassy in Fiji while the Chinese Government would deliver more from Beijing to Tonga.

He said there was a characteristic of Chinese diplomacy and that was: We say what we mean, we do what we promise.

“We always say that when there is a need, China will be there.”

Assistance to Fiji

Mr Qian said the Chinese Government had also donated a batch of emergency supplies to the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) in the past week to assist Fijians who were also affected by the volcanic eruption.

He said the Fijian Government was also coordinating some meetings which he said he was hopeful would be done today.

“The Fijian Government has also sent two teams to the Lau Group of Islands and we will act accordingly based on the assessment on the damage on the Lau islands.”

Edited by Losirene Lacanivalu

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