On 7 November 2003, Kiribati established diplomatic relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan.

With relations first established with the PRC in 1980, Kiribati had been the home to a satellite tracking base for China's space program from 1997 until 2003, a week before ties were formally severed.

On November 7, 2003, ties were established with Kiribati.

When the Republic of China established diplomatic relations with Kiribati in 2003 the ROC officially declared that Kiribati could continue to have diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

Shortly after the Shenzhou 5 flight in 2003, the Pacific nation of Kiribati established diplomatic ties with the Republic of China ( Taiwan ), leading the People's Republic of China ( PRC ) to cut off diplomatic ties under its One-China policy.

Although the U. S. does not maintain a diplomatic office or consulate in Kiribati, staff from the American embassy in Suva, Fiji make frequent visits to Kiribati.

As one of the most vulnerable nations on the planet in terms of the effects of climate change, Kiribati has been an active participant in international diplomatic efforts relating to climate change, most importantly the UNFCCC conferences of the parties ( COP ).

* List of diplomatic missions in Kiribati

* List of diplomatic missions of Kiribati

Kiribati maintains good relations with most countries and has particularly close ties to Pacific neighbours Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Kiribati briefly suspended its relations with France in 1995 over that country's decision to renew nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

In the late 2000s, Kiribati began to strengthen its relations with Cuba.

The United States Department of State characterizes U. S .– Kiribati relations as " excellent ",.

There are currently sixteen doctors providing specialised medical care in Kiribati, with sixteen more scheduled to join them.

In November 2010, Kiribati will host the Tarawa Climate Change Conference ( TCCC ), the purpose of which is to support the initiative of the President of Kiribati to hold a consultative forum between vulnerable states and their partners with a view of creating an enabling environment for multi-party negotiations under the auspices of the UNFCCC.

The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the south-east, and Nauru to the south.

Since 2008, Vanuatu ( along with Tonga, Kiribati and Papua New Guinea ) has sent seasonal workers to Australia through the Australian government-funded Pacific Seasonal Workers Pilot Scheme ( PSWPS ).

The distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive: most of the world's atolls are in the Pacific Ocean ( with concentrations in the Tuamotu Islands, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, Coral Sea Islands, and the island groups of Kiribati, Tuvalu and Tokelau ) and Indian Ocean ( the Atolls of the Maldives, the Laccadive Islands, the Chagos Archipelago and the Outer Islands of the Seychelles ).

While there is no atoll directly on the Equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km North of the Equator.

New competition came from Burns Philp, operating from what is now Kiribati, with competition from Levers Pacific Plantations from 1903 and from Captain E. F. H. Allen of the Samoa Shipping and Trading Company from 1911.

The flag of Kiribati: the upper half is red with a gold frigatebird ( Fregata minor, in Gilbertese: te eitei ) flying over a gold rising sun ( otintaai ), and the lower half is blue with three horizontal wavy white stripes to represent the ocean and the 3 groups ( Gilbert, Phoenix and Line Islands ).

In the mythology of Kiribati, Auriaria is a red-skinned giant chieftain who fell in love with the beautiful red-skinned woman, Nei Tituaabine, but had no children.

In Tonga, Seventh Day Adventists ( who usually observe seventh-day Sabbath ) observe Sabbath on an official Sunday due to an anomaly in the International Date Line which places the line east of Tonga ; as Tonga lies east of the meridian of 180 ° longitude, Sunday as observed in Tonga ( as with Kiribati, Samoa, and parts of Fiji and Tuvalu ) is considered for this purpose to be the same day as Saturday observed in most other places.

Over a period of 40 years, from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, labor for the sugar cane fields of Queensland, Australia included an element of coercive recruitment and indentured servitude, of the 62, 000 South Sea Islanders ( from Melanesia, mainly the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, with a small number from the Polynesian and Micronesian islands such as Samoa, Kiribati and Tuvalu ).

In Kiribati, there are High Commissions from Australia and New Zealand and embassy of the Republic of China ( Taiwan ), and the People's Republic of Cuba.

Kiribati receives development aid from the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, USA, the Asian Development Bank, UN agencies and Taiwan.

The PRC also broke precedent by not cutting ties until November 29 and spent the interim lobbying for Kiribati President Anote Tong to reverse his decision.

The first missionary to live in Kiribati arrived at Abaiang on 16 November 1857.

Starting from November 2009, an Air Kiribati service between Tarawa and Fiji's main gateway at Nadi is operated as well, using an aircraft and crew of Our Airline.

* National Progressive Party ( Kiribati ) fl. 2003

During a meeting of the IOC in Prague in 2003, Kiribati was accepted into the organization and was set to participate in the 2004 games.

As of April 2012, Kiribati has played only ten games in its history, all at the South Pacific Games, two in 1979, four in 2003, and four in 2011.

The Kiribati team for the 2003 South Pacific games was as follows versus Tuvalu: Tarariki Tarotu, Tebwaia Baikawa, Nabaruru Batiri ( Naingmea Beiaruru 86 ’), Tokabi Kaiorake, Ukenio Kobuti, Ruevita Iotin, Lawrence Nemeia, Betaia Ioana ( David Collins 54 ’), Nabuaka Itimaroroa, Atantaake Tooma, Palamo Kulene.

Bahamas, Bhutan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Djibouti, Dominica, Kiribati, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Niger, Palau, Rwanda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Somalia, Swaziland, Tonga, Tuvalu.

Cuban doctors have reportedly provided a dramatic improvement to the field of medical care in Kiribati, reducing the child mortality rate in that country by 80 %, and winning the proverbial hearts and minds in the Pacific.

Of the 193 member states of the United Nations, only 17 are not party to the treaty: Andorra, Angola, Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( North Korea ), Federated States of Micronesia, Haiti, Iraq, Kiribati, Lebanon, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Nauru, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan and Tuvalu.

* 1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.

New Zealand has its non-resident embassy for the FSM in Kiribati.

* 1979 – The island nation of Kiribati becomes independent from United Kingdom.

* Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kiribati from the United Kingdom in 1979.

The islands which now form the Republic of Kiribati have been inhabited for at least seven hundred years, and possibly much longer.

The country gained its independence in 1979 and has since been known as Kiribati.

The islands formally became an independent nation on 12 July 1979 under the name of Kiribati.

Although the indigenous Gilbertese language name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru, the new state chose the name " Kiribati ," the Gilbertese rendition of " Gilberts ," as an equivalent of the former colony to acknowledge the inclusion of islands which were never considered part of the Gilberts chain.

Despite being part of Kiribati, Banaba's municipal administration is by the Rabi Council of Leaders and Elders, which is based on Rabi.

In 2006, Teitirake Corrie, the Rabi Island Council's representative to the Parliament of Kiribati, called for Banaba to secede from Kiribati and join Fiji.

* U. S. State Department Background Note: Kiribati

This article describes the geography of the Republic of Kiribati.

Kiribati consists of 32 atolls and one island scattered over all four hemispheres in an expanse of ocean equivalent in size to the continental United States.

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Kiribati, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Politics of Kiribati takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Kiribati is the head of government, and of a multi-party system.

The constitution promulgated at independence on 12 July 1979, establishes the Republic of Kiribati as a sovereign democratic republic and guarantees the fundamental rights of its citizens.

The following article outlines transport in Kiribati.

There are 670km of highways in Kiribati ( 1996 est.