Australia has unveiled measures designed to bolster the economy and security of island nations in the south Pacific, including a A$2bn ($1.5bn) infrastructure programme, in the latest phase of a battle for influence with China in the region.
The measures, announced by Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison, came as Marise Payne, Australia’s foreign minister, met her counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing for talks aimed at a resetting troubled diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Ms Payne is the first Australian foreign minister to visit Beijing in almost three years following tensions over the passage of foreign influence laws and criticism by Canberra of China’s militarisation of islands in the South China Sea.
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