(Reuters) – Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlotte Salwai visited technology company Huawei in Shenzhen to view surveillance technology being used to strengthen police operations and reduce criminal activity, the prime minister’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Salwai is visiting China ahead of attending the Pacific Islands Leaders’ Meeting in Japan next week.
China is Vanuatu’s largest external creditor and major infrastructure provider. Australia, Vanuatu’s largest donor and police partner, has expressed concern about China’s security ambitions in the Pacific islands region after Beijing last year signed a police equipment deal with Vanuatu and a security pact with the Solomon Islands.
According to a statement posted on social media by the Vanuatu government, Huawei has provided digital systems to Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila, and other cities to “reduce criminal activity.”
He added that the police surveillance system would require a data center in Vanuatu. It was unclear whether Huawei’s police surveillance system was already in use in Port Vila or was under consideration.
A spokesman for the Vanuatu Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vanuatu is an archipelago-based nation with a population of around 300,000, of which around 50,000 live in the capital, Port Vila.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham and Michael Perry Editing)
