Tuesday, March 19

Solomon Islands says security pact will not allow China to build military base | Solomon Islands


Solomon Islands has said it won’t allow China to build a military base as it seeks to counter international fears over its new security alliance with China.

But that insistence will do little to ease concerns about the pact from the nation’s traditional partners that include New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

The leader of Micronesia added his voice to those expressing trepidation by invoking the bloody battles of the second world war and warning that the pact could again see the South Pacific region become a battleground for much larger powers.

The Solomon Islands government said on Thursday that a draft agreement of the new security pact had been initialed by representatives from Solomon Islands and China and would be “cleaned up” and signed.

In a statement Friday, the Solomon Islands government said that “contrary to the misinformation promoted by anti-government commentators” the agreement did not invite China to establish a military base.

“Government is aware of the security ramification of hosting a military base, and it will not be careless to allow such an initiative to take place under its watch,” the statement said.

The statement seemed to more emphatically rule out the possibility of a base after the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, had earlier told parliament it had no intention of asking China to build a base.

Sogavare said his nation sought only peace and prosperity, citing its foreign policy mantra: “We are friends to all and enemies to none.” He said it wasn’t a secret deal but a sovereign issue.

Under the terms of the draft agreement, China could send police, military personnel and other armed forces to Solomon Islands “to assist in maintaining social order” and for a variety of other reasons. It could also send warships to the islands for stopovers and to replenish supplies, which had led to speculation about the possibility of China establishing a naval base on the South Pacific islands.

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The Micronesian president, David Panuelo, wrote a letter to Sogavare saying Micronesia had “serious security concerns” about the “novel and unprecedented” arrangement.

He said the two small nations had become battlegrounds during the second world war and that it could happen again as China, the US and Australia asserted themselves in the region.

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“And it is it plausible that, once the spheres have been carved out, that our concerns about climate change – today’s problem – would manifest into all-too-real concerns about a war in our back yards, with our people, our islands, as the playground for children playing as adults?” Panuelo wrote to Sogavare.

The Australian defense minister, Peter Dutton, said on Friday that while it respected Solomon Islands’ sovereignty, the deal showed that China was acting aggressively in the region.

“We need to be very cautious here because the Chinese are incredibly aggressive, the tactics that they’re deploying into small island nations are quite remarkable,” he told Sky News.

The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, this week described the possibility of Chinese military forces stationed on Solomon Islands as “the potential militarization of the region”.

And the US state department said Washington did not believe China’s security forces and methods needed to be exported.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said Thursday that “relevant parties should see the China-Solomon Islands security cooperation objectively and rationally and stop making irresponsible remarks”.

“Attempts to provoke, obstruct and undermine China’s friendly relations with the island countries is not popular and will not succeed,” Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.

“China-Solomon Islands cooperation does not target any third party and is not in conflict with Solomon Islands’ cooperation with other countries. Instead, it complements the existing regional cooperation mechanisms in a positive way,” he added.

Solomon Islands, home to about 700,000 people, switched its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019 – a contributing factor to riots in November last year between residents of different islands within the country.

Australian police have been in the capital, Honiara, maintaining peace since then under a bilateral security treaty established in 2017. It provides a legal basis for the rapid deployment of Australian police, troops and associated civilians in the event of a major security challenge.

Chinese police are already on the islands conducting a training mission.

The Federated States of Micronesia is home to about 100,000 people. It has diplomatic relations and considers itself a “friend” of China, as well as having a close relationship with the US under a compact of free association.


www.theguardian.com

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