Australia ‘did nothing’ despite being warned last year of Solomon Islands security deal with China

The Australian government “did nothing” despite being warned last year about a looming security deal between the Solomon Islands and China.

The Australian government “did nothing” despite being warned last year about a looming security deal between the Solomon Islands and China, the country’s Opposition leader claims.

Democratic Party leader Matthew Wale told the ABC on Monday he warned Australian officials as early as August last year that China was negotiating a military pact that could see a Chinese naval base established in the strategically located Pacific nation, less than 2000 kilometres from Australia’s shoreline.

A draft version of the proposed agreement sent shockwaves through Canberra after being leaked online last week, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warning it could “destabilise” the region and the federal Opposition saying it was “deeply” concerned about the news.

One commentator has likened it to “Australia’s Cuban missile crisis”.

Speaking to Nine’s Today show on Friday, Defence Minister Peter Dutton denied the Morrison government had “dropped the ball” in the Pacific. “Not at all,” he said.

Mr Dutton said Australia had a “fantastic relationship” with the Solomon Islands and was providing continued policing and other assistance. “We would be concerned clearly about any military base being established and we would express that to the Solomon Islands’ government,” he said.

But Mr Wale told the ABC he was “extremely disappointed” the Australian government did not heed his warnings about the potential for a Chinese military presence in the country.

“I have intimated as much to the Australian High Commissioner and officials that this was in the offing, even as far back as last year – all the indications were there and the Australian government did nothing about it – so I’m extremely disappointed in the Australian government,” he said.

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Solomon Islands opposition leader Matthew Wale. Picture: Facebook

Australia deployed peacekeepers to the Solomon Islands in November last year to help quell days of deadly rioting in the capital Honiara, in part stoked by anger at Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s growing alignment with Beijing.

A long-running ethnic rivalry between Malaita, the country’s most populous island, and Guadalcanal, home to the government, has been inflamed in recent years by anti-China sentiment on Malaita.

Malaita’s leader Daniel Suidani fiercely opposed Mr Sogavare’s decision to recognise Beijing and break ties with Taiwan in 2019, which the PM argued “puts the Solomon Islands on the right side of history”.

After the 2021 riots, the Solomon Islands alarmed Canberra by accepting an offer from China to deploy police and train local forces, and last week the country signed a memorandum of understanding on police co-operation with Beijing.

Mr Wale suggested that Australia should strengthen its existing security agreement with the Solomon Islands in a bid to kill off the proposed China security pact.

“We’ve benefited from that treaty with Australia, what (is) that treaty not able to give us, maybe that should be a subject of discussions with Australia, New Zealand as opposed to going into a new treaty altogether with China,” he told the ABC.

DFAT has been contacted for comment.

ADF soldiers board a C-17 Globemaster at RAAF Townsville to the Solomon Islands. Picture: Evan Morgan

In a joint statement on Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne and Zed Seselja, Minister for International Development and the Pacific, highlighted Australia’s longstanding support for the Solomon Islands.

“Australia is aware of the proposed draft security co-operation agreement between China and Solomon Islands,” they said.

“We respect the right of every Pacific country to make sovereign decisions. We have regularly and respectfully raised our concerns with the Solomon Islands government and will continue to do so.

“We would be particularly concerned by any actions that undermine the stability and security of our region, including the establishment of a permanent presence such as a military base.”

The statement concluded, “Australia will be transparent and show respect as a reliable partner as we seek to build unity across the Pacific. We will continue supporting peace, economic prosperity, stability and democratic values across our region.”

Defence experts have warned that the deal could usher in a “dystopian, dangerous future” for the region.

Michael Shoebridge, director of defence, strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told news.com.au last week that the draft agreement was “consistent with Communist Party goals and directions, if not in the Solomons then somewhere else in the South Pacific”.

“We don’t want the standoff between the PLA Navy ship that used military-grade lasers against an Australian Air Force P-8 aircraft just a few weeks ago to be the type of frequent military tensions in the South Pacific that would be enabled by PLA routine presence operating out of the Solomon Islands,” he said.

“The single biggest factor that can either bring this nasty reality into being or prevent it is whether the Chinese military is given permission by any government in our region to establish places to base or operate from.

“Any government that helps create this dystopian, dangerous future will be doing its own people and the region enormous damage.”

Xi Jinping with Manasseh Sogavare. Picture: Sheng Jiapeng/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

Lincoln Parker, chair of the Liberal Party’s defence and national security policy branch and preselection challenger for the federal seat of Warringah, told 2GB on Saturday that the proposed deal would effectively mean Mr Sogavare was “ceding sovereignty of his own country to a foreign power”.

“Is that what the people of the Solomon Islands and indeed the Pacific … and the world want to see happen? Do we want that domino to fall in our backyard? Well we don’t, and the people of the Solomon Islands don’t either,” he said.

Mr Parker said Mr Sogavare was “somewhat of a unilateral Prime Minister going off and making these decisions which are contrary to the best interests of the Solomons people”.

“If there’s a military base there we know the Chinese have the most long-range missiles, even longer-range than the United States, some of them can travel over 5000 kilometres, that puts just about all of Australia, certainly all of our east coast cities at risk,” he said.

“We cannot allow, and indeed the rest of the region do not want, a Chinese military operational base that controls the Solomon Islands in this neck of the woods.”

Mr Parker said Mr Sogavare was trying to delay the 2023 election as he was likely to lose.

“We need to say, we need a democratic process to occur in the Solomon Islands where the people have a voice and have a vote to see whether they are happy for you to give away their sovereignty,” he said.

Host Chris Smith suggested Australia should “apply the screws on the Solomon Islands if they don’t return the loyalty”.

“Well all options have to be on the table,” Mr Parker said.

Originally published as Australia ‘did nothing’ despite being warned last year of Solomon Islands security deal with China