SYDNEY — Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals.

Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper -- recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands.

The International Seabed Authority is meeting in Jamaica to thrash out the rules for deep-sea extraction. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping ...

Apart from Fiji, other PICs that signed a shiprider agreement with the US include Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, ...

Vanuatu, site of a major U.S. naval base in the Pacific War, was also a vital venue for China's "undercover infrastructures," ...

China embeds its military ambitions within Pacific Island nations by developing dual-use infrastructure such as ports, ...

SYDNEY: Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harbouring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has ...

Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harbouring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ...

"Beijing aims to reshape regional power dynamics ... that splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in the economic waters of Kiribati, a nation of low-lying atolls; carried out live-fire exercises ...

For at least the last six years, China has made a more focused effort to get many of the Pacific island states, especially ones that recently switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing (for example, ...