Fiji’s prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, has said he was forced to cancel an official visit to China after falling and hurting his head.
The visit had been announced on Tuesday by the Chinese embassy in Fiji, which said Rabuka would attend the opening of the World University Games in Chengdu alongside the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Rabuka, elected in December, said he had been forced to cancel the visit after tripping on the stairs while looking at this phone, resulting in an injury to his head.
“I’ve just come back from the hospital where I had a dressing put on my head for a small accident I had this morning,” Rabuka said in a video message uploaded to Facebook, pointing to small blood splatters on his business shirt.
“I have had to inform China I will not be able to undertake the trip that was coming up tomorrow night,” he continued, adding he hoped to accept future invitations.
An update on the deferment of my trip to China due to an injury that I sustained earlier today due to a misstep at the entrance to the New Wing of Government Buildings. pic.twitter.com/SYKrRUQPHF
— Sitiveni Rabuka (@slrabuka) July 25, 2023Rabuka’s visit was planned as China ramps up its push for security and trade ties with the Pacific Islands to compete with the United States and its allies.
Rabuka previously said he was reviewing a police cooperation agreement with China, signed a decade ago by the former government.
The Solomon Islands’ prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, signed a policing deal on a visit to China this month, building on a security pact struck in 2022.
Australia’s Pacific minister Pat Conroy said on Tuesday that Sogavare had reassured him Australia remains Solomon Islands’ “primary security partner”.
“Every single Pacific leader agreed that security should be driven by the Pacific, that if any country in the Pacific has a gap in their security, they should ask other members of the Pacific family to fill it first,” Conroy said.
English (US)