Pacific Night

A get-together dubbed “Pacific Night” was held in Beijing on November 29， 2011. It was sponsored by the CPAFFC and the China-Oceania Friendship Association (COFA) and attended by about 150 people including representatives from the Chinese foreign， commerce and cultural ministries， former Chinese ambassadors to South Pacific Island countries， diplomats of the embassies of New Zealand， Fiji， Vanuatu， Tonga， Samoa， Micronesia and Papua New Guinea， and representatives from the Pacific Islands Forum Trade Office in China， and students from the South Pacific Island countries studying in Beijing. They gathered at the CPAFFC to renew friendship and greet the New Year.

CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin said: “As a national people-to-people friendship association， the CPAFFC is devoted to enhancing Chinese people’s understanding of and friendship with the people of the world. In the past year， the Association has carried out friendly exchanges and activities in various forms. The purposes of people-to-people diplomacy are to promote people’s friendship and safeguard world peace so that all can live in harmony.” She added that the CPAFFC would maintain close cooperation with the South Pacific countries to uplift the traditional friendship.

Carl Robinson Worker， New Zealand Ambassador， spoke highly of CPAFFC’s contributions to promoting friendly relations and cooperation between China and the South Pacific region and expressed the hope to strengthen friendly exchanges and cooperation with the CPAFFC to start a new chapter of China-South Pacific region friendly relations.

Students of the South Pacific countries studying in Beijing put on an excellent show of songs and dances.