Solomon Islands

According to the leaked draft of the pact, Chinese warships can stop in the Solomon Islands and China could send police and armed forces there "to assist in ...

"After so many years, senior US officials are making such a high-profile visit to the Pacific island countries. Wang cited an unidentified report saying that the last high-level visit of the US to a Pacific island country was 37 years ago by then Secretary of State. Wang also questioned the US' "motive" for sending top officials to the island countries later this week.

Sogavare told parliament the agreement with Beijing was necessary to deal with the Solomon Islands's “internal security situation”. The Pacific island nation ...

“All the drivers of instability, insecurity and even threats to national unity in Solomon Islands are entirely internal,” the Solomon Star newspaper quoted Wale as saying on Wednesday. “This means that the deal, in giving opportunity to military posturing by China, has nothing to do with Solomon Islands national security. China is already the Solomon Islands’ top export destination, buying some 65 per cent of Honiara’s exports in 2019, followed by Italy at 9 percent. I doubt that the provision for this in the deal is inadvertent, rather it is calculated for geopolitical effect. He is invested in China & China invested in him. The United States and New Zealand have also expressed concern amid worries it could lead to China setting up a military outpost in the Pacific. “It is another difficult step for Australia in reassessing its future in a China dominated region,” Harrison said. A contingent of Australian police helped restore stability following a request from the government. On the part of Prime Minister Sogavare this is mercenary, on the part of China it is an opportunity too good to miss.” Foreign Minister Marise Payne, in a joint statement with Zed Seselja, Minister for International, Development and the Pacific, said while Australia respected the Honiara’s “right to make sovereign decisions” it was “deeply disappointed” with the China pact. While Sols sovereignty is respected, this has regional implications. “Australia completely misjudged the implications of China’s rise in the early 2010s, and the reassessment has been slow and equivocal, and still has a long way to go.” The Solomon Islands, with a population of less than 700,000, is a chain of hundreds of islands lying east of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean.

China's government says it has signed a framework agreement on security cooperation with Solomon Islands, adding it's not directed at any third party.

"His government was warned of this security pact in August and he hasn't even bothered to send the Foreign Minister to the Solomon Islands to raise concerns on behalf of all Australians." "The PRC foreign affairs is heading to Honiara in the middle of May to sign multilateral agreements and cooperations with the Solomon Islands government," Douglas Ete, chairman of the public accounts committee, said. "The purpose of China-Solomon security cooperation is to promote social stability and long-term peace and security in Solomon Islands, which is in line with the common interests of Solomon Islands and the South Pacific region," he told a briefing on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry says the deal will help maintain social order, and safety in the island nation.

The Solomon Islands had rebuffed last ditch efforts by Australia - its biggest aid donor - to stop the deal. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said the pact would not "undermine peace and harmony" in the region. The ...

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta, similarly said the country was "saddened" that the Solomon Islands had made the pact. A leaked draft of the agreement, which was verified by the Australian government, said Chinese warships would be permitted dock on the islands and that Beijing could send security forces "to assist in maintaining social order". Australia, New Zealand and the US have raised concerns on security in the Pacific, after China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands.

A secret agreement that expands Chinese influence over Solomon Islands has now been signed. How did it come about, and what does it mean for the region?

“From a Solomon Islander point of view, the concern is very much about sovereignty being undermined,” said Batley, “and potentially their country being a focus of much greater geostrategic competition. And I personally do not think a naval base will be built anywhere in the country.” “The text looks like it was drafted in Beijing and presented to Solomon Islands,” he said. For Australia, it’s potentially a strategic nightmare, but it’s equally … of concern to other Pacific Islands as well for the same reason.” I think the language that is used is very much in China’s interest and not in Solomon Islands’ interest. James Batley, the former Australian high commissioner to Solomon Islands, says the secrecy around the deal was to be expected. Matthew Wale, the leader of the Solomon Islands opposition, says he first learned of the proposed deal in mid-2021 from a source. Opposition leader Wale and officials did not discuss a possible security agreement with China during this meeting or any other.” But Wale claims that Australia should not have been shocked by the news when it leaked. It was sign of just how closely guarded the deal was that news only emerged publicly seven months after the first rumours began. The news set off shockwaves that were felt in Canberra, Wellington and Washington. And if Australia’s gravest fears were realised, such an agreement could also allow China to establish a military base less than 2,000km from its eastern border.

Accusations the Australian government bungled a security relationship prior to the Solomon Islands signing a pact with China have been dismissed by the ...

It is not a new issue and these threats still remain" he said. You calibrate your diplomacy to deal with sensitive issues," he said. "The officials reaffirmed the four countries' enduring and shared commitment to the Pacific Islands," she said. The prime minister also said the whole region had been facing "intense" approaches from China, and said Beijing made "all sorts of promises" and "all sorts of investments" in the Pacific which could be "very persuasive". "The foreign minister is a different level to the minister of Pacific. One is in cabinet, one is not. "I'm not going to act like former administrations that treated the Pacific like some extension of Australia. The Pacific Islands are very sensitive to that and I have always had an approach with the Pacific Islands which understands those sensitivities because there is a lot at stake."

SYDNEY — The leader of the Solomon Islands announced Wednesday that his country signed a security agreement with China, just days before a top American ...

The United States losing influence in the Solomon Islands could set off a “domino effect” in the region, he said. In his announcement Tuesday, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sniped at the United States for “all of a sudden” planning to send senior officials to the region. Wale said he had warned Australia about the agreement last yearbut the country was slow to react — a claim Australian officials have denied. Concerns are particularly acute in Australia, which is about 1,000 miles from the Solomon Islands and has been the target of a Chinese trade war. “While such agreements will always be the right of any sovereign country to enter into, we have made clear to both Solomon Islands and China our grave concerns at the agreement’s potential to destabilize the Pacific region’s security.” “The Switch,” as the decision is known, underlined Beijing’s expanding influence in a region traditionally dominated by the United States and Australia. “We don’t want our own little Cuba off our coast,” he told reporters. The announcement came hours after the White House confirmed that Kurt Campbell, the National Security Council’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, would be visiting the Solomon Islands and two other countries in the region this week. “We have full understanding of the fragility of peace, and our duty as a state is to protect all people, their property and critical national infrastructures.” Anne-Marie Brady, a political scientist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, said the agreement showed Australia and the United States needed to change their approaches to the region. Faced with an increasingly assertive Chinese military in the region, Australia struck a pact with the United States and the United Kingdom in September to obtain nuclear-powered submarines. “New Zealand has a long-term security partnership with Solomon Islands, and I am saddened that Solomon Islands has chosen nonetheless to pursue a security agreement outside the region,” she said in a statement.

There may not be a direct link between climate policy and the agreement, but it has contributed to the dimming of Australia's reputation in region.

These are all good things and important contributions Australia has made to the Pacific. But there is one area in which Australia consistently falls down as a partner: climate change, which Pacific leaders have repeatedly said is the gravest security threat it faces. As though this is up to Australia.” But there is something Australia can do to bolster security in the Pacific and to firm up its position as a trusted partner there: listen to its neighbours and act on the climate crisis. Incidentally, this view may be news to some Pacific leaders, many of whom had their last in-person meeting with him at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu in 2019. Labor is arguing there is more that Morrison could have done to prevent Solomon Islands from signing this deal with China, and we’ll never truly know if they’re right. Before the rounds of morning radio and television were done, it was clear that Labor was determined that the Solomons-China deal would be the issue of the day.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said Wednesday his government signed a controversial security pact with China "with our eyes open" but ...

A bilateral security deal with Australia was signed in 2017, and came into force the following year. The security pact was signed in the wake of violent protests which gripped the Solomon Islands capital Honiara last November, and led to much of the city's Chinatown being burned to the ground. Sogavare told parliament it was an "honour and privilege" to announce that the deal had been signed by officials in Honiara and Beijing "a few days ago".

Solomon Islands' decision to sign a security pact with China will not hurt or undermine peace and harmony in the region, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare ...

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China has signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, a tiny state in the Pacific Ocean. The US and Australia are furious and worry that Beijing ...

France currently deploys 7,000 defense personnel, 15 warships and 38 aircraft in the Indo-Pacific area. The agreement adds that "China may ... make ship visits to ... Solomon Islands, and the relevant forces of China can be used to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects on the Solomon Islands." According to Article 1 of the agreement, Solomon Islands "may request China to send police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces to assist in maintaining social order." The draft security cooperation agreement between China and Solomon Islands has been linked on social media and raises a lot of questions (and concerns). (photos of agreement in this and below tweet) 1/6— Dr Anna Powles (@AnnaPowles) pic.twitter.com/nnpnJJQC7r March 24, 2022 Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was defiant Wednesday about his decision to sign the security pact with China in the face of lobbying from the United States and Australia. The deal, announced Tuesday by Beijing, has faced sharp criticism from the United States and Australia, which fear the pact could lead to China gaining a military foothold in the South Pacific.

Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta says the new Solomon Islands security arrangement with China is unwelcome and should be open to regional scrutiny.

and the leaked document that was shared by social media recently. It was also invoked in response to the Tonga eruption earlier this year. "It's something which is a worry... We see the Pacific Islands Forum as the best place to bring those issues together so that we can get greater transparency and discuss these." China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific is sure to feature in conversation between Ardern and her Japanese counterpart today. However it is believed to allow for Chinese forces to help maintain social order in the nation. He had defended the deal as being in the best interests of the Solomon Islands and its people for keeping peace, said they had entered into the deal "eyes wide open", and that as a sovereign nation the country can make agreements with any country they see fit. Both China and Solomon Islands have dismissed fears a Chinese military base could be established in the Solomon Islands. But if this did happen, or if Chinese military personnel had a presence in the Solomon Islands, would that constitute a "diplomatic red line" for New Zealand? Does Mahuta admit to any failure by New Zealand in not succeeding in persuading the Solomon Islands not to go ahead with the deal? "The whole of the Pacific want to discuss this issue because no-one's got a lot of visibility on the terms and conditions of the arrangement. "Nobody's seen the exact terms and conditions of the agreement, not the whole of the parliament of the Solomons, certainly not the Solomon Island peoples, and not the Pacific Island nations. The signing of the pact and so-far non-disclosure of its terms is part of a political dispute within the Solomon Islands, but its significance is much wider for the Pacific, Mahuta said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his Solomon Islands counterpart, Manasseh Sogavare, has insisted no Chinese military bases would be built in his country.

On whether it would give China a greater military footprint in the South Pacific, Ambassador Ebert-Gray said it was "too soon to predict that". The United States' former ambassador to Solomon Islands said countries such as Australia should have seen China muscling in to the Pacific on the horizon. Mr Morrison said that was appropriate, given the sensitivities of the situation, and did not want to be seen as "stomping" all over Solomon Islands. "President Xi looked President Obama in the eye and said that the 20 points of reclaimed islands on the South China Sea would not be militarised. Mr Dutton's reference was to a meeting between the Chinese and US presidents in 2015, where Xi Jinping gave assurances that his administration would not be looking to build military bases in the South China Sea. A leaked draft of the agreement from last month showed that Beijing could be allowed to deploy forces to "protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in Solomon Islands", and "make ship visits, to carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in, Solomon Islands".

Australian PM Scott Morrison accused the opposition of 'taking China's side'.

Australia had urged the Solomon Islands not to sign the pact and New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the agreement is unwelcome and unnecessary. The Labor leader's argument was that the government had been complacent. "Despite the Solomon Islands government's comments, the broad nature of the security agreement leaves open the door for the deployment of PRC [People's Republic of China] military forces to the Solomon Islands." A draft of the agreement leaked online last month, and China's Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that it had been signed "the other day". Sogavare was equally vague, telling lawmakers that it had been signed "a few days ago". "What I don't understand is, when something of this significance takes place, why would you take China's side?" The security agreement allows China to send police and military personnel to the Solomon Islands "to assist in maintaining social order," while also opening the door for Chinese warships to stop in port there for "logistical replenishment" — giving rise to worries of a possible Chinese naval base in the Pacific.