"We are very impressed by the way China furthers its cooperative relations with the south Pacific region, and we are grateful for what China has done to enhance development of the Pacific island states," said Mr Greg Urwin Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, the secretary-general of Pacific Islands Forum said China has been involved in the South Pacific region through its people very early in history, and that Chinese communities are living in almost every Pacific country.

"The modern relations have been developing very quickly. China now enjoys very strong relationships with a range of countries in the region, and it has in recent times indicated its willingness to join us in our efforts to improve our regional cooperation, which is very welcomed," said Urwin.

Urwin said China's engagement in the Pacific cooperation and development was concrete and has a huge space in the future.

"We are also moving with China to conduct a high level meeting in economic minister's level next year, which I think will result in a new level of cooperation between China and south Pacific countries, especially in the economic and trade fields," said Urwin.

He said the Pacific countries are very interested in talking with China more about trade issues.

"For some of the south Pacific countries like Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the trade issues are already very critical," he added

"China is one of our strongest partners and that's one of the reasons we would like to talk with China about the trade issues," he said.

Regarding to the economic meeting between China and the South Pacific countries, Urwin said it is normally not good to have too many meeting and symbolic events, "but my perception of the meeting will be solid in content and conducive for mutual benefit. "

Urwin said it is still very difficult in the Forum for the small countries to "remain in the radar screens" of the big powers like China via dialogue meetings, "so the very opportunities for the small state to catch the attentions of the countries like China is in itself valuable."

"We could at the stage begin talk about more developmental issues, about security issues, about trade issues in detail and we look forward to that sort of opportunities to happen," he said.

Greg Urwin, who was the Australian foreign office's senior Pacific Islands specialist until his retirement in 2002 and was put to the post of Forum secretary-general one year later, has been working hard for the Pacific Plan aiming at further cooperation and integration among the south Pacific countries.

The adoption Thursday of the Pacific Plan by the 36th Pacific Islands Forum which closed here Thursday was regarded by Urwin as a "significant step" for regional cooperation. The 16 member states of the Forum will in the next ten years implement a series of initiatives to achieve cooperative progress in economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security issues.

"We have been trying to develop the regional cooperation for a couple of years and we've only been partially successful. Many times the things we did at the regional level remained relatively meaningless because they were not translated into real benefits for the government and the people at the national level," he said.

Urwin said now the south Pacific countries have a clear roadmap and a higher level system for programmatic development and cooperation.

He said "we are very grateful" that China has shown interest in supporting the Pacific Plan.

Urwin said China will play an increasingly important role in the south Pacific, which is conducive to the development of the region.

Source: Xinhua