SOLOMON ISLANDS STIRS UP ROW IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

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SOLOMON ISLANDS STIRS UP ROW IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

Monday, 09 May 2022 | PK Vasudeva

SOLOMON ISLANDS STIRS UP ROW IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

Fear of China setting up a base on the Islands rattles even the US

The Australian opposition is accusing the present Government for bungling the security situation of Solomon Islands.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected accusations that the coalition has bungled a key security relationship, after Solomon Islands shrugged off warnings from Australia and signed a new pact with China. The controversial deal has been the subject of significant debate recently, amid fears it could allow China to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The opposition Labour has called the handling of the issue the greatest Australian foreign policy blunder in the Pacific since World War II, and questioned why the government sent Pacific Minister Zed Seselja instead of Foreign Minister Marise Payne to Honiara after a draft of the pact leaked. Senator Seselja was sent to Solomon Island in a last-ditch effort to convince the Government in Honiara to walk away from the deal, a trip now shown to be fruitless. Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Morrison had ignored warnings about the deal last year, and should have personally intervened to ensure it was never signed. Morrison told reporters in Adelaide he made a deliberate decision to send Senator Seselja because it would be counter-productive to publicly heap pressure on Solomon Islands over the agreement. There is going to be a great danger for Australia and New Zealand in the Pacific if Beijing gets a foothold in Solomon Islands. “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.” Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare defended the pact with China. “We intend to beef up and strengthen our police capability to deal with any future instability by properly equipping the police to take full responsibility of the country’s security responsibilities, in the hope we will never be required to invoke any of our bilateral security arrangements,” he said. Sogavare is not willing to release the full text of the agreement because he would like to consult China before the agreement is brought into the  public domain.Beijing typically does not release the text of its bilateral security agreements with other countries. The silence on the part of Sogavare shows that the agreement is more in favour of China for beefing up its security in Pacific. Beijing is going all out to give financial and military aid to Honiara to win over Solomon Islands without understanding that China will finally make its military base there.

The US National Security Council, said the US convened a meeting with senior officials from Australia, Japan and New Zealand.”The officials reaffirmed the four countries’ enduring and shared commitment to the Pacific Islands,” she said. “The United States resolved to intensify its engagement in the region to meet 21st-century challenges. “Officials from the four countries represented also shared concerns about a proposed security framework between the Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China and its serious risks to a free and open Indo-Pacific.” Foreign Minister Marise Payne says the signing of the security pact disappoints the Government. Payne rejected Senator Wong’s assessment that inaction by the Morrison government had fuelled the situation.” I think that’s an unfair characterisation, and I don’t think it recognises the sovereign decisions that governments, of course, make for themselves,” she said.”We are looking at very serious geo-strategic challenges in our region, and they are realities.”

(The writer is former Senior Professor, International Trade and Member, Vivekananda International Foundation. The views expressed are personal.)

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