The Unwisdom of the Solomon Islands

Beijing sure is getting its money’s worth from the “security pact” it signed in the spring with a tiny Pacific nation. Witness how the Solomon Islands in recent days has started turning away port visits by US and allied ships.

The island chain’s government last week denied permission for a US Coast Guard cutter, the Oliver Henry, to make a routine port call. This followed a refusal for Britain’s HMS Spey. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare says the refusals were the result of paperwork snafus, but the US Embassy in Australia on Tuesday said the island nation has imposed a moratorium on naval visits pending development of new procedures.

Ships anchored near the Honiara port, where foreign military vessels are currently banned from docking. Picture: AFP

This shouldn’t be dismissed as routine bureaucratic confusion. The Solomons in the spring signed a security pact with Beijing. The deal opens the door to a direct Chinese military and police presence that could eventually include a base on the islands, which sit to the northeast of Australia. It’s China’s most direct foray into the South Pacific to date, a region Beijing previously sought to influence primarily via trade and investment.

This isn’t to say someone in Beijing picked up a phone and instructed officials in Honiara, the Solomons capital, to block the US and British port calls. We may never know for sure. It could be that Mr Sogavare and his government acted pre-emptively in an attempt to curry favor with China. Either way, by developing its relationship with the Solomons, Beijing has succeeded in giving the US and its allies an unpleasant surprise.

Beijing is growing more assertive in naval matters, especially when it comes to throwing its weight around with recipients of its economic largess. This month China prevailed on Sri Lanka’s government to allow a “research ship” to dock for several days at the Chinese-built Hambantota port in the south of the country. Beijing and Colombo said the ship was on a civilian research mission, but India suspected it could be gathering data for military purposes and Washington raised concerns.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare (right) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Honiara, Solomon Islands, in May. Picture: Getty Images

All of this amounts to a major naval challenge when US capabilities have been allowed to wither. The Biden Administration has been slow to awaken to the danger, although it now has dispatched several officials for a series of visits to the Pacific region. Washington last month announced the opening of two new embassies in the South Pacific nations of Kiribati and Tonga, and it is committing more financial aid to the region.

Americans who remember the bloody World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomons know the region can be strategically important. The US needs to show it can be a constant ally in a region it has often overlooked.

But Pacific island governments owe it to their citizens to tread carefully as they weigh co-operation with China against alliances with the West. The US is a distractible ally but China can be a ruinous one, especially when payments for its loan-based “investments” come due. Ask Sri Lanka. The Solomons would be wise to think carefully about its friendship with Beijing.

– Wall Street Journal