The 35th annual meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum has opened in Apia, capital of the Pacific island country of Samoa.

The Forum is an annual meeting of the heads of governments of the 16 Pacific states. A post-Forum dialogue is to be held next week.

Currently, the Forum has twelve dialogue partners, and China is one.

China has had friendly relations with the Forum ever since it was first invited to attend post-forum talks in 1988.

(CCTV.com August 4, 2004)