Qatar's Ambassador to Belgium Meets Vanuatu FM

HE Qatar's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium Sheikh Ali Bin Jassim Al Thani met here with Vanuatu's Minister of foreign affairs and external trade Alfred Carlot who is now visiting Brussels. Talks during the meeting dealt with relations between the two countries and means of bolstering and developing them. It is worthy to mention that the Republic of Vanuatu is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres ,east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea. Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people.

The first Europeans to visit the islands were the members of a Spanish expedition led by Fernandes de Quire's who arrived in Espiritu Santo in 1605. In the 1880s France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the country, and in 1906 they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through a British?French Condominium. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was created in 1980. The nation's name was derived from the word vanua ("land" or "home"). It is to be noted that Vanuatu recognized the State of Palestine on 21 August 1989 and On 19 October 1989 both States established diplomatic relations. Non-resident embassy of Palestine based in Canberra, Australia.