Foreign relations of Kiribati
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Kiribati maintains good relations with most countries and has particularly close ties to its Pacific neighbors--Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Kiribati briefly suspended its relations with France in 1995 over that country's decision to renew nuclear testing in the South Pacific.
Kiribati signed a treaty of friendship with the United States in 1979. The U.S. has no consular or diplomatic facilities in the country. Officers of the American Embassy in Suva, Republic of the Fiji Islands, are concurrently accredited to Kiribati and make periodic visits. In lieu of ambassadors in-country, leaders from the U.S. Peace Corps often stand in as representatives. The Peace Corps Kirbati program is highly active throughout the Gilbert islands, with its headquarters located in Bikenibeu, Tarawa.
Kiribati hosted the Thirty-First Pacific Islands Forum in October 2000. The country became a member of the United Nations in 1999.
On November 7, 2003, Kiribati established diplomatic relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan. Although it did not sever ties with the People's Republic of China, expressing the intention to continue relations, Beijing suspended ties on November 29 after failed attempts to lobby President Anote Tong to change his mind. With relations first established with the PRC in 1980, Kiribati had been the home to a satellite tracking base for China's space program from 1997 until 2003, a week before ties were formally severed.[1]
Kiribati has only one embassy abroad (the High Commission in Suva, Fiji), although it has a number of consulates (Honolulu, Sydney, Hamburg, Auckland, Tokyo and London). In Kiribati, there are embassies or high commissions of Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of China or Taiwan, while People's Republic of China maintains a Representative Office.
| Member states of the Pacific Islands Forum |  |
|---|---|
| Australia · Cook Islands · Fiji · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Micronesia · Nauru · New Zealand · Niue · Palau · Papua New Guinea · Samoa · Solomon Islands · Tonga · Tuvalu · Vanuatu
associate members: French Polynesia · New Caledonia ·— observer Tokelau special observer: Timor-Leste |
